Box Score  / Box Score (pdf)

Chicago, Ill. – The No. 11 Lewis University men's volleyball team battled but fell to No. 1 Loyola 3-1 (16-25, 25-27, 25-21, 21-25) on Saturday (April 26) at Gentile Arena in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament finals.
 
Flyers move to 23-7 on the season while Loyola improves to 27-1 on the year.
 
The Lewis offense was led by redshirt junior outside hitter Geoff Powell (Claremont, Calif./Claremont), who posted 22 kills, four digs and two aces while fellow outside hitter Greg Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) collected 10 putaways, two aces and three block assists. Redshirt senior setter BJ Boldog (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) had 44 assists, four digs and four block assists. Sophomore middle blocker Bobby Walsh (Chicago, Ill./Mount Carmel) seven total blocks (1 solo, 6 BA) of the 15.5 Lewis team blocks, as well as nine kills.
 
"It was a tough, back-and-forth match," Lewis head men's volleyball coach Dan Friend said. "We did some good things with our block defense but ultimately our first touches broke down."
 
In the first set, Loyola came out hot, swinging at a .652 clip (16 K, 1 E, 23 TA) while the Flyers posted a .231 (9 K, 3 E, 26 TA) hitting percentage.
 
The Flyers held the lead most of the second set, but a three-point swing by the Ramblers allowed Loyola to tie the match at 22. The squads were knotted up three more times, the last at 25 before the Ramblers collected a putaway by Cody Caldwell and a Lewis error to take a 2-0 set lead.
 
Powell collected the first two points of the third set for the Flyers to tally his 1,000^th career kill. Lewis extended their lead to 5-0 before forcing Loyola to burn a timeout. Lewis kept their momentum rolling, swinging at a .360 clip and collecting 13 kills with four errors in 25 attempts with 5.5 team blocks to keep Loyola at bay as they only hit at .179 percentage (14 K, 9 E, 28 TA).
 
In the fourth set, the squads were knotted up six times, the last at 20 when the Flyers picked up the point on a Rambler attack error. Loyola regrouped and used a 5-1 run to put the set and match away.
 
Powell, Boldog and Walsh were named to the MIVA All-Tournament team after the conclusion of the match.

Loyola had four tally double-figure kills, led by Caldwell's 19 putaways. Owen McAndrews and Thomas Jaeschke each collected 14 kills while Joe Smalzer chipped in 12. Peter Hutz dished out a match-high 56 assists, while libero Peter Jaseaitis had 13 digs and seven assists.
 
The Flyers now wait to see if they will receive an at-large bid to the 2014 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships. The selection show will be streamed at NCAA.com starting at 10 AM.