NEWARK, Del. –
Kacy Sekunda recorded the first Loyola University Maryland triple-double since 2015 on Saturday afternoon, leading the Greyhounds to a four-set win over Robert Morris University, 33-31, 25-12, 23-25, 25-21, to close the Blue Hens Invitational.
Sekunda finished with 11 kills, 24 assists and 10 digs while Loyola went 2-1 in the season-opening tournament at the University of Delaware.
Her triple-double is the first for Loyola since Molly Werts had 10 kills, 31 assists and 15 digs in a four-west win over Manhattan on September 11, 2015, at the UMES Fall Fling. Last season, there were only 80 triple-doubles in all of NCAA Division I volleyball with two coming in the Patriot League, both by 2022 Player and Setter of the Year Julia Kurowski of Colgate.
Set Breakdown
- Set One
- Loyola hit .304 in the opening set and built an early lead, but the Colonials would come back to lead several times.
- Robert Morris had a set-point at 24-23, but Loyola swung the lead to its column with kills by Sekunda and Riley Hamilton.
- An Abby Ryan service ace gave the Colonials another set point at 27-26, but the Gryehounds fought that off, too. A Loyola service miscue gave Robert Morris another chance to close the frame out at 28-27, but Morgan Crawford and Caitlin Churney came back to win points for Loyola on kills.
- Two-straight Robert Morris points gave the Colonials their third set-point at 31-30, but Loyola scored three in a row – kills by Lauren Link and Kennedy Stevens and then a tandem block by the pair – to win the set.
- Set Two
- The Greyhounds cruised through the frame, hitting .345 to Robert Morris' -.036 with the Greyhounds putting away 14 kills and the Colonials tallying just four.
- Set Three
- Robert Morris extended the match with a late rally.
- A Stevens ace made it 19-19 and forced a Robert Morris timeout, but the Colonials sided out from the timeout and scored again to take a two-point lead.
- Loyola would get within one, 24-23, on a Link kill, but Rosina Esposita had a kill to end the set in the Colonials' favor.
- Set Four
- Loyola went up 10-9 on a Robert Morris attack error, but the Colonials scored seven points in a row to lead 16-10.
- A service error by Robert Morris swung the serve back to Loyola; Stevens had three kills, and Crawford had two kills during a 10-2 Greyhounds run that put Loyola up, 20-18.
Stat Pack
- Link led three Greyhounds with 10 or more kills as Sekunda had a career-high 11, and Stevens set a collegiate-high with 10.
- Link, Sekunda and Stevens combined to hit .340 in the match, totaling 43 kills in 94 attempts with only nine errors.
- Rose McDermott led Loyola with 21 digs, a career-high that topped the 16 she had last year against Bucknell in the Patriot League Quarterfinals.
- Bryanne Soares added 23 assists, and Leah Hunter had a career-best 12 digs.
- Riley Hamilton and Churney both had seven kills for Loyola.
Up Next
- Loyola will head to North Carolina for a trio of matches next weekend.
- The Greyhounds will play at Duke University on Thursday, August 31, and they will then face West Virginia University in a match on Friday, September 1, that will be played at Duke. The following day, Loyola will head to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for a match against the Unviersity of North Carolina.
