BALTIMORE – Loyola University Maryland rallied to win an extended third set, and the Greyhounds pushed the fourth to extra points, but visiting Towson University held on for a 25-13, 25-21, 27-29, 27-25 non-conference victory Friday night in Reitz Arena.
Addie Lowe finished one off her career-high with 16 kills for the Greyhounds, hitting .424 in the process with only two errors on 33 swings.
Loyola (0-3 overall) broke a 7-7 tie in the third with two-straight points and eventually built a 21-15 lead with a 9-4 run.
The Tigers (2-2) scored four in a row after a timeout, and a Loyola attack error got the margin to two, 21-19. Taylor Pagan and Clara Vorel locked up a block for Towson to draw the Tigers within one, 23-22, and they tied it a point later off a Greyhounds' attack miscue.
Loyola would go up a point after a Towson serving error, but the Tigers drew even with a Loyola hitting error. Both teams would have set points to close out the frame with Towson going up 27-26 on an Anna Rice kill.
The Greyhounds sided out when Rice hit wide, tying the third at 27-27, and they then had two-straight blocks with
Elsie Afful teaming with Lowe on the first and
Morgan Crawford on the second to close the third and send the game to a fourth.
Afful had six blocks, one away from her career-high set last season.
Towson led by as many as seven, 19-12, in the fourth, but Loyola scored 10 of the next 13 points to tie at 22-22 with a block by
Mariah Sanabia and
Ava Nepkin.
Destini Pickett sided out for the Tigers with a kill, but Lowe evened the set at 23-23 with a kill of her own.
Rice gave Towson match point at 24-23, but Lowe had another sideout kill to extend the night. Evi Priniotaki sided out for Towson to give them another match point, but a Tigers blocking error on an Afful kill kept Loyola alive.
Priniotaki and Kaitlyn Moran, however, had back-to-back kills for Towson to end the match.
Nepkin added eight kills for Loyola, while Sanabia and Crawford each had seven each. Sanabia added four blocks,
Gabi Verdicchio led Loyola with 22 assists, and
Addie Huber had a team-high 19 digs.
Loyola will be back on the court Saturday when it heads to Morgan State for a 4 p.m. game against the Bears.
