Match Information
Opponent	Navy Midshipmen
Date	Friday, September 15, 2023
Time	7:00 p.m.
Location	Baltimore, Md. | Reitz Arena
Getting There	Directions
Watch	ESPN+ | International Video Stream
Live Stats	Click Here
Game Notes	Loyola

Patriot League Play Begins

• Friday brings the start of Patriot League matches for the Loyola University Maryland volleyball team as the Greyhounds open their conference schedule with a home match against the U.S. Naval Academy.
• The 7 p.m. contest in Reitz Arena marks the beginning of Loyola's 11th year in the conference. Admission is free to all home volleyball matches.

Looking Back

• The Greyhounds went 2-1 in their final preseason tournament of 2023, beating Stony Brook and Siena on Saturday and losing to host St. John's on Saturday at the Jack Kaiser Volleyball Classic.
• Caitlin Churney and Bryanne Soares were named to the All-Tournament Team with Churney hitting .420 and averaging 2.60 kills per set, and Soares averaging 9.1 assists and 3.0 digs. Soares also led the Greyhounds with eight aces to raise her team-leading total to 15 this year.

Victory Of Note

• Loyola's win over West Virginia on September 1 marked the first time the Greyhounds have beaten a team from the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC or Pac-12 since September 2009 when they toppled Maryland in four sets.

Middle Of It

• Caitlin Churney and Kennedy Stevens were keys to the Loyola offense last weekend at St. John's Jack Kaiser Classic, tying for team-high honors (with Riley Hamilton) with 26 total kills, 2.6 per set, over the three matches.
• They combined to hit .374 in the three matches, pairing for 52 total kills with only 12 errors. Stevens also had four aces.

Setting & Hitting

• Kacy Sekunda was named the Patriot League Player of the Week on August 29 after leading the Greyhounds in the first weekend of the season. Playing as a right-side hitter and setter, Sekunda averaged 2.91 kills, 5.0 assists and 2.36 digs in 11 sets that covered three matches.
• She had the first triple-double by a Loyola player since 2015 when she had 11 kills, 24 assists and 11 digs in the tournament's finale against Robert Morris. Her triple-double was the first for Loyola since Molly Werts recorded one, also in a four-set win, on September 11, 2015, against Manhattan.
• Sekunda followed that performance by recording another triple-double against West Virginia, posting 11 kills, 22 assists and 11 digs. She has played in eight matches this year and is averaging 2.39 kills, 4.89 assists and 2.32 digs per set while hitting .240.

Link-ing The Kills

• Lauren Link broke out as a sophomore outside hitter for the Greyhounds in 2021, finishing second on the team with 3.24 kills per set, a mark good for fifth-best in the Patriot League. She had 17 matches with 10 or more kills, including each of the Greyhounds' last 13 contests. During that stretch, she averaged 14.1 kills per match and 3.6 kills per set.
• Last season, Link moved into a role as the Greyhounds' primary option on the outside, and she had the stats to back it up. In 24 matches, she put away 406 kills, an average of 4.56 per set. Link's 4.56 kills per set were tops in the Patriot League and ninth in the NCAA. She had seven matches with 20 or more kills, 16 with 15-plus, and she has put away 11 or more kills in all but two of the 25 matches Loyola has played this year.
• To start the 2023 season, she has five matches with 10 or more kills and one with 20-plus, a season-high 21 coming against Robert Morris.

Hitting Their Strides

• Increased playing time has come with improved numbers for Riley Hamilton and Morgan Crawford as the duo has garnered more sets in the last several matches.
• Hamilton opened the Jack Kaiser Classic with a career-high performance against Stony Brook, recording 16 kills with only one error for a .484 hitting percentage. 
• Crawford took 32 total swings against Siena and St. John's and finished with 14 kills in the two matches, six in the former, eight in the latter. Earlier this year, she had a season-high 12 kills at Duke.

Brenner Comes Back

• Sophie Brenner missed the first seven matches of the 2023 season with an injury, but she returned last weekend for the tournament at St. Johns and averaged 2.0 kills per set over three matches.
• Last year, she was one of the Greyhounds' most productive hitters in the latter portion of the season, posting eight or more kills in 10 of the last 11 matches.

Up Next

• The Greyhounds head on the road for a pair of games next weekend, playing at Army West Point on Friday, September 22, before heading to Colgate the following afternoon.