BALTIMORE – For the second day in a row, Loyola University Maryland volleyball rallied from a first-set loss to post a Patriot League victory, defeating visiting Lafayette College on Saturday, 16-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-21.
Saturday, the Greyhounds trailed in the final two sets at points which the Leopards had 21 or more points. Loyola beat Bucknell University on Friday night after losing the first and third sets, coming from behind in that match for a five-set win.
Ava Nepkin led the Greyhounds in the kills column for the second match in a row, posting 18 against the Leopards while also pulling up 12 digs.
The junior entered the weekend with a season-high of 11 kills and a career-best of 17 from last year, totals she eclipsed in both matches. Nepkin had 19 kills Friday night against the Bison.
Kacy Sekunda added 13 kills, seven coming in the final two sets.
Mariah Sanabia hit .389 with seven kills on 18 swings without an error. She also had four total blocks, two solo.
Loyola hit .349 in the second set and evened the match at one set for each team, but the Leopards looked poised to take a four-point lead late in the third.
Auma Mbeche-Odhiambo hit a ball between Loyola defenders, but Greyhounds libero
Addie Huber got her left foot on it to keep the ball in play. Huber had three of her team-high 19 digs during the rally that ended with an
Addie Lowe kill, getting Loyola within two, 20-18.
MbDestiny McKenzie later had a kill to make it 23-21 for Lafayette, but Sanabia and Nepkin had kills on back-to-back plays for Loyola to tie the score at 23-23.
A Leopards attack error gave Loyola set-point in the third, and Nepkin sent the match to the fourth, with Loyola up 2-1, with a kill.
In the fourth, Lafayette led 20-16, but a Sanabia kill got the Greyhounds within three. That play started a run for the Greyhounds where they scored nine of the set's last 10 points.
Gabi Verdicchio had an ace for Loyola, and Sekunda put away a kill to make it 20-19, but Mbeche-Odhiambo had a kill after a Leopards timeout to stretch the lead to two, 21-19.
Sekunda sided out with a kill for Loyola, and
Riley Hamilton had an ace to tie the set at 21-21. She held serve for the rest of the stanza, and Sanabia and Nepkin ended the match with a block.
Verdicchio had 27 kills, and
Maggie Smith added 16 for Loyola. Hamilton added 16 digs, and Verdicchio had 14.
Loyola will be on the road for its next four matches, starting with a Friday, October 31, contest at Colgate University.
