WILMINGTON, N.C. –
Kacy Sekunda tied her career-high with 15 kills, recording her fifth career triple-double in a four-set Loyola University Maryland win to open the 2024 season.
The Greyhounds started play at the Hampton Inn & Studites Seahawk Classic with a 25-19, 17-25, 25-23, 25-21 win over Queens University of Charlotte.
Sekunda added 13 assists and 12 digs to her 15 kills while hitting .205 during the match. Last season, she had Loyola's first triple-double since 2015 and finished the year with four total, tied for fifth-most in NCAA Division I.
Her 15 kills led all players in the match, while
Caitlin Churney and
Lauren Link both had 10 for the Greyhounds. Churney had just one error in 23 swings and hit .391 from the middle. She also was in on a team-high three total blocks.
Ava Nepkin tallied a team-high 13 digs, while Sekunda had 12 and Link added a double-double with 11.
Leah Hunter had a career-high five service aces and also added eight digs in the win.
Queens evened the match at one set apiece with a second-set victory, but Loyola came back to take a 24-21 lead in the third on a Link kill. The Royals, however, took advantage of two-straight Greyhounds hitting miscues to get within a point, 24-23, before Sekunda won the set for Loyola with a kill.
A Loyola hitting error in the fourth set tied the score at 18-18, but Nepkin sided out with a kill, and
Ally Bauer had a service ace to give the Greyhounds a two-point cushion. Churney then had two-straight kills with three of her 10 coming in the final eight points of the deciding fourth set.
Loyola will play a pair of matches on Saturday, August 31, to close the tournament. The Greyhounds start the day with a 10 a.m. match against host UNCW before taking on East Carolina at 1:30 p.m.
