BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland volleyball came all the way back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the match at 2-2 and serve match point three times in the fifth set, but Lehigh University held off the attempts and eventually scored the final match's final three points for a 25-13, 25-22, 16-25, 23-25, 17-15 Patriot League victory in Reitz Arena.
Lauren Link had a match-high 21 kills for Loyola, and
Kacy Sekunda tallied her second triple-double of the weekend, and sixth this season, with 12 kills, 24 assists and 18 digs.
Caitlin Churney matched her career-high with 12 kills, and
Leah Hunter picked up 22 digs for the Greyhounds.
Lehigh capitalized on 20 Greyhounds hitting errors in the first two sets to go ahead 2-0, but Loyola cleaned up its offense and had 14 kills with only one error in the third, hitting .371 to force a fourth.
The Mountain Hawks led 22-21 in the fourth and were three points from closing out the match after a block by Natalie Luscomb and Madison McCarthey, but Sekunda had a kill and service ace on back-to-back points for Loyola to give the Greyhounds a 23-22 advantage.
Lehigh evened the set at 23-23 with a kill, but a service error by the Mountain Hawks swung set-point to Loyola's side, and
Ava Nepkin closed out the stanza with a kill.
The Mountain Hawks led 8-7 at the side-switch in the fifth, but an attack miscue tied the score at 8-8 and kills by Nepkin and Sekunda gave Loyola a 10-8 lead.
Lehigh called timeout and scored the next two points out of the break for another tie, but Sekunda and Nepkin had another set of kills, and a Lehigh hitting error gave Loyola a 13-10 lead.
The Mountain Hawks again called timeout, and they scored two in a row following, but after two timely defensive saves by the Greyhounds, Churney had a solo block to put Loyola in front, 14-12.
Lehigh rallied with a kill and a block of its own to tie at 14-14, but Loyola gained another set-point chance with a
Lauren Link kill at 15-14, but the Mountain Hawks had two-straight kills and then a service ace to close out the victory.
Five Greyhounds had 12 or more digs in the match, with
Bryanne Soares (14), Link (13) and Nepkin (12) also pushing past that mark. Soares added 25 assists, and Hunter had eight.
Loyola will continue its homestand on Friday night with a 7 p.m. match against Colgate.
