Ball State was overpowered early and often en route to its 3-1 loss to Loyola, whose attacks were the biggest advantage of the match.
The Cardinals were resilient, but ultimately the Ramblers displayed too much firepower.
Loyola’s final attack percentage was .369 on a night where the team used an array of disguises to execute their offense. Despite the fact that the Ramblers didn’t have overwhelming kill statistics coming into Thursday’s match, they were still able to rack up 56 total kills.
Ball State libero David Ryan Vander Meer and the rest of the Cardinals had a tough time dealing with Loyola’s attack.
“They were passing pretty well throughout the night and they were able to run a good offense,” Vander Meer said.
On the other side of the net, Ball State struggled to get the offense going. They ended the match with 49 kills and a .225 attack percentage.
“They served well. I think they did a good job of serving our outside attackers, making it hard for them to transition out to get a good hit on the ball,” said Vander Meer.
Joe Smalzer had 17 kills in the match to lead two other Ramblers in double digits, despite only posting a .231 attack percentage. Thomas Jaeschke executed 14 kills while Owen McAndrews had 11 kills and led Loyola in attacking percentage with a .625 percentage.
Ball State had only one player with double-digit kills, with Marcin Niemczewski posting 16 and a .211 attack percentage. He was followed by 3 other Cardinals with eight kills. Graham McIlvaine was the most successful Cardinal attacker, posting a .400 percentage, although he had just five attacks.
Ball State stepped up defensively as the match proceeded. Loyola’s attack percentage dropped after the first two sets before ascending in the fourth and final set. Vander Meer attributed their in-match improvement to serving.
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