BALTIMORE – First-year Loyola University Maryland players
Addie Lowe,
Ellie Joffe and
Elsie Afful combined for 22 kills and 13 blocks in the last four sets on Friday night, helping propel the Greyhounds to a five-set win over visiting Holy Cross, 17-25, 25-20, 28-26, 17-25, 15-8, in Reitz Arena.
The Greyhounds went into a 1-0 hole after the Crusaders hit .351 in the first set and held Loyola to just 10 kills.
Lowe came on in the second set and finished with a career-high 10 kills, eight digs, four blocks and a service ace, while Joffe had six of her career-best eight blocks in the last four sets to go with seven of her eight kills.
Afful also made her entry to the match in the second set and finished with five kills and three blocks.
As a team, Loyola had a season-best 12 blocks, and the improved block in the final four sets of the match helped Loyola to pick up 87 digs, its most this season.
A fourth freshman,
Addie Huber, led Loyola with a season-high 28 digs, and classmate
Sarah Tate had an ace.
After its subpar first set, Loyola picked it up offensively in the second with 15 kills and only three errors. Lowe and Joffe both had three kills, and
Kacy Sekunda posted four.
Holy Cross jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the third set and was up 20-15 later in the frame after a Taliah Lee and Lacey Murphy block.
A Lee attack error sided out for Loyola, and
Leah Hunter entered for the first time, serving an ace to spark a 5-0 Loyola run that would give the Greyhounds a 21-20 lead on a Murphy hitting miscue.
The Crusaders regained a 22-21 lead on a Murphy-Gabby Wold block, and a Greyhounds hitting error put Holy Cross two points from taking a 2-1 lead in the match.
After a Loyola timeout,
Morgan Crawford put away one of her nine kills to sideout for Loyola. Crawford and Joffe then had back-to-back blocks on Holy Cross' KK Green to push the Greyhounds up, 24-23.
The Crusaders scored two in a row and had set-point at 25-24, but Joffe came through with a kills, and then Sekunda had another to make it 26-25 Greyhounds. Emma Sorensen had a kill to even the score at 26-26, but Sekunda had another kill, and Joffe combined with Lowe to block Green for a third time and put Loyola in front 2-1 in the match.
Holy Cross again used a hitting efficiency differential in the fourth set, hitting .321 to Loyola's .059, forcing a fifth set.
The teams were tied at 3-3, but Afful broke through with a kill, and then Crawford had back-to-back kills. A Sekunda ace made it 7-3 Loyola.
Crawford had the last of her nine kills for an 8-4 lead, and
Ava Nepkin had three kills over the next six points for Loyola.
It was then two of the freshmen who sealed the win. Lowe had consecutive kills to make it 13-8, and Afful scored the last two points of the night with kills.
Sekunda finished with a team-high 12 kills and posted her third double-double of the season, 16
th of her career, with 17 assists and 12 digs.
Loyola will be back on its home floor Saturday at 4 o'clock with a match against Colgate.
