(Posted March 1, 2008)

CHICAGO -- Juniata College was unable to match Loyola University's hitting and blocking as the Eagle men's volleyball team completed its two-match Midwestern road swing with a 3-0 loss at Loyola University Chicago, Saturday night in Chicago. Game scores were 30-26, 30-23, and 31-29. Juniata (6-7) threatened to upset the Ramblers, ranked 13th in the AVCA Division I poll, in game three, and briefly held a lead over Loyola past the game's halfway point. The Eagles recovered from a slight deficit at 15-12, eventually tying the game at 17-17 following an attack error by Loyola's Ian Anderson. That was the first of eight ties over the rest of the game, the last coming at 29-29 after Juniata rallied facing match point at 29-27. Matt Fritz (Churchville, Md./John Carroll) logged one of his eight kills to make the score 29-28, then an attack error by LUC's George Kamberos off the service of Craig Harvey (Beverly, Mass./St. Johns Prep) knotted the game at 29-29. A block by Loyola's Nick Lamoureux and Mike Hutz led to a 30-29 advantage for the Ramblers, and a Juniata attack error completed the 31-29 win for Loyola. A Juniata rally in game one fell also fell short of the mark, as the Eagles recovered from a 27-20 deficit. An Ian Anderson attack error cut the Rambler lead to 27-21, then a triple block by Halteman, Matt Werle (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) and Zach Wanner (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) followed by a LUC attack error further reduced the margin to 27-23. A pair of side out service errors put the score at 28-24, leading to a block by Wanner and Dan Powers (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) that cut the LUC lead to 28-25. Two more side out service errors left Loyola defending Wanner's serve at 29-26, but a kill by the Ramblers' Michael Morice lifted LUC to the 30-26 win. Game two was Juniata's best hitting effort of the afternoon at .231, but it was also Loyola's as the Ramblers hit .394 with just five errors on 33 total attacks. The Eagles were tied with Loyola at 8-8 following an attack error by LUC's Lamoureux, and trailed the remainder of the game. The closest Juniata came to catching Loyola was a 16-15 following an Ian Anderson service error, but the Ramblers scored the next three points to take a commanding lead in the game. Halteman led the Eagles with nine kills on 12 total attacks for a .583 hitting percentage. In addition to Fritz's eight kills, Wanner tallied six and Zach Bock (Mount Wolf, Pa./Northeastern) finished with five kills to go with a team-high nine digs. Werle logged 22 assists, while Wanner and Powers each had three total blocks. Juniata finished with 5.5 total team blocks for the match, trailing Loyola's 8.5 blocks. The Ramblers had two players log double-digit kill totals, led by Anderson with 14 and Joe Guntli with 11. Mike Hutz set the Loyola offense with 38 assists, while Lamoureux recorded seven total blocks on the afternoon. Juniata is off for the next two weeks, and will return to action on Friday, March 14, when it faces Springfield College at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center in Huntingdon. -30-

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.