Despite Letdown, Loyola Beats Up on San Francisco

There’s a good reason why members of the Loyola Marymount women’s volleyball team didn’t seem excited after winning Saturday’s final home match of the regular season against San Francisco.

The Lions dominated the Dons, 15-7, 15-11, 15-6, but couldn’t stop thinking about Friday’s West Coast Conference loss to first place Santa Clara that all but dashed any chance of earning a berth to the NCAA playoffs.

Loyola (21-7, 9-3) is tied with San Diego for second place in the WCC with two matches remaining. The Lions must win Friday’s match at Gonzaga and Saturday’s at Portland and hope that Santa Clara gets upset in order to keep their NCAA playoff hopes alive. Loyola appears to have a good chance of qualifying for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship Tournament in Kansas City.

“It was really tough to forget about last night,” said junior setter Robin Ortgiesen, who became the WCC’s all-time career assist leader on Friday with 4,320. “But I think we bounced back. Now we’re in a position where we know we have to take control.”

The Lions didn’t look sharp against San Francisco (10-21, 4-8) in the first two games, but the Dons helped Loyola by making numerous errors.

San Francisco made an error on game point in the first game and the Dons committed four more early in the second, helping Loyola take an 8-3 lead. At 13-6, San Francisco had a 5-0 run, but it was too late.

“I felt (the Lions) were a little flat,” San Francisco Coach Karin Wallenstein said. “If we would have produced maybe we would have had a chance. The thing is they have a solid team and even on a down day they can come through.”

Wallenstein’s frustration showed after the match when she told the officials: “I can’t believe how you can do that to a team. It was so one-sided. It just hurts when they work so hard.”

But nothing could have helped the Dons in the third game. They led, 4-1, but Loyola rallied to tie the score, 6-6. Kim Blankinship then served nine consecutive points for the game. The freshman outside hitter from Torrance High served an ace for match point and finished with 11 kills.

“I’m proud of how we came back to win this because last night was very difficult for everyone,” Loyola Coach Steve Stratos said. “Even at pre-practice today was not upbeat and there was not a lot of enthusiasm.”

Sophomore outside hitter Amy Moeller led the Lions with a 15 kills. San Francisco was led by Nadia Kadochnikova’s 11 kills.