Before Tuesday night, the Loyola women’s volleyball team had won nine of ten matches, including all five matches in Gulf Coast Athletic Conference play.
But the arch-rival Spring Hill Badgers made sure that those streaks came to end.
The Badgers convincingly handed the Wolfpack its first conference loss in three straight sets, 30-21, 30-23, 30-27.
“Spring Hill is a good team,” coach Tommy Harold said. “It’s always a tough match when we play them, and this time we came up on the short end. They came out and played well.”
Harold, however, also remembered that the Wolfpack had beaten Spring Hill two times already this season.
“The fact that we’ve beat them twice with non-scholarship players vs. ones with scholarships speaks volumes about what the girls have accomplished. The next time we play will be another good match.”
Tuesday was not Loyola’s night. They did not have the lead at any point in the match.
The ‘Pack could not get much momentum until the end of the third set. Trailing 25-17, the Wolfpack rallied to make the score 28-26 in favor of the Badgers. But they could not pull any closer.
“Towards the end we got more into it,” Harold said. “We made some changes to give a spark. I don’t know if that was the difference. But it was too little, too late. That happens. We have to go and do it from the start. You can’t do it (play well) in the third game and expect to win many matches.”
Harold said that the ‘Pack will possibly have a chance to redeem its three-game loss to Spring Hill in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference tournament next month but is not sure which team has the advantage at this point.
“We went and beat them twice at their place, and they beat us at our place. It’s tough to say who has the edge,” Harold said.
Last Thursday, the Wolfpack beat Xavier and former coach Greg Castillo for the third time this season. They won on the road in four games, 30-27, 30-26, 29-31, 30-21.
Suzi Ruiz, history senior, paced Loyola with 20 assists and seven aces, including three to start the fourth game.
Castillo, who missed the first match between the teams on Sept. 30 due to toncilitis, complemented the play of his former players in the match.
“When they went on a run (in the fourth set), we couldn’t come back,” he said. “It’s what I expected from them. I’ve coached all of them, and that’s the type of players they are.”
Castillo, who left Loyola after seven seasons to head Xavier’s upstart program, said he had mixed emotions about coaching against his former players.
“You miss them, and you also want to beat them,” he said. “And you also hope that they do well. They played well, and I didn’t expect anything less than that.”
On Friday in the Den, the ‘Pack defeated Millsaps in three games, 30-22, 30-24, 30-24.
Ruiz had 22 assists, 11 digs, and four aces in the victory. Elementary education senior Amanda Gilliard had 10 kills; Ashley Cobette, general business junior, added nine.
Loyola defeated two other conference opponents in the week before the Spring Hill loss.
The Wolfpack travels this weekend to Montogomery, Ala., to play in the Faulkner tournament.
Harold said that the tournament will provide the team with an idea of how they match-up with the other conference in Region XIII.
“It will be a nice measurement to see how far we’ve come along,” he said.
“It’s important in that it’s preparation for regionals. It will be our first time seeing most of those teams in the other conference. It will be nice to get a feel for how other side of the region looks.”
