Mahan Helps #5 Loyola Chicago Slip Past #13 Fort Wayne in Five

  0 Derek Johnson | February 17th, 2018 | College - Men's Indoor, MIVA, News

MATCH STATS

  • #5 Loyola Chicago Def. #13 Fort Wayne 3-2 (
  • #5 Loyola Chicago 10-2 (3-0, MIVA); #13 Fort Wayne 9-3 (1-2, MIVA)
  • Fort Wayne, Indiana (MIVA Match)
  • Box score

Fort Wayne, Indiana – In a fierce battle of MIVA opponents, #5 Loyola Chicago almost lost its 2-0 set lead but eventually slipped by #13 Fort Wayne in five. The victory keeps Loyola Chicago unbeaten and atop the race in the MIVA, while it further distances Fort Wayne from the top three in the standings yet also reaffirms their position as a top end MIVA team at the same time.

No one shined brighter than Collin Mahan in the match for the Ramblers, as he notched a team-high 18 kills on a .516 mark to go with four aces and four digs.

His performance led a team effort with Ricky Gevis (13 kills, .333, nine digs), Jeff Jendryk (12 kills, .500, two aces), Paul Narup (eight kills, .500, four blocks) and Garrett Zolg (53 assists, 16 digs) posting high totals. That was key to have so many step up too, as Will Tischler hit just .172 on 29 swings.

The combination of depth and a star in Mahan almost weren’t enough, as Fort Wayne’s Pelegrin Vargas was nearly unstoppable and recorded a match-best 24 kills on a .383 mark with seven digs. Unfortunately for the Mastodons, after Colton Stone (12 kills, .370, eight digs, three aces) and Tony Price (11 kills, .257, eight digs), the other Fort Wayne players notched just 12 kills on .075 clip.

From a team perspective, both teams had ebb and flows of success and failures at different aspects of the game. In total, Loyola Chicago hit .357 to Fort Wayne’s .268, had more digs (58-49), blocks (8-5) and assists (61-56), while the two were equal in aces (9-9).

Next up, Loyola Chicago takes on Ball State on the road on Saturday to finish their week. Fort Wayne meanwhile sticks around at home for another top 10 opponent as they play host to #8 Lewis on Saturday.

Press Releases

Courtesy of Loyola Chicago:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (February 16, 2018) 

In Short
No. 6 Loyola University Chicago (10-2, 3-0 MIVA) received 18 kills from Collin Mahan and hit .357 as a team to earn a 27-25, 25-19, 23-25, 18-25, 15-12 victory at No. 14 Fort Wayne (9-3, 1-2 MIVA) tonight in a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match. The win is the Ramblers’ 11th in a row against the Mastodons and also extends their winning streak in Fort Wayne to 10.

How It Happened
Back-to-back Mahan kills gave Loyola a 25-24 lead in the opening set, but Pelegrin Vargas answered with a kill that knotted the score at 25. An errant Fort Wayne serve, immediately followed by an attack error, allowed the Ramblers to complete a 27-25 victory.

Loyola stormed out of the gate to a 6-1 lead in set two and never looked back en route to a 25-19 win that gave it a 2-0 lead in the match. After the Mastodons trimmed the Ramblers’ lead to three, another Mahan kill, followed by a Paul Narup/Ricky Gevis block and a Will Tischler kill, extended the advantage to 15-9, and Fort Wayne never got closer than four points the rest of the way.

Mahan drilled a kill to draw Loyola even at 19 in the third set, but Fort Wayne reeled off three straight points to break open a 22-19 lead. The Ramblers fought their way back and got within a point on three occasions the remainder of the set, the last time coming on a Mastodon service error that made it 24-23, but the Ramblers misfired on a serve to provide Fort Wayne the final point in a 25-23 decision.

Fort Wayne sprinted out to a 7-2 lead in set four, but Loyola clawed back and closed within 9-8, thanks to a 6-2 run that was capped by a kill from Tischler. The Mastodons answered that spurt with three consecutive points to extend their lead to 12-8 and never allowed the Ramblers to get closer than three the rest of the set on their way to a 25-18 victory.

The decisive fifth set was back-and-forth until Loyola rattled off three unanswered points, capping that brief surge with consecutive blocks, to break open a 13-10 lead on the way to a 15-12 victory that ran its winning streak to eight matches overall.

A Look At The Numbers

  • Mahan finished with 18 kills, four digs, four aces and a block, while hitting .516 (18-2-31), and Gevis totaled 13 kills and nine digs.
  • Jeff Jendryk racked up 12 kills, matching his season high, and chipped in three blocks, and Tischler contributed 11 kills and 12 digs.
  • Garrett Zolg notched his fourth double-double of the season, tallying 53 assists and 16 digs, both season highs.
  • Avery Aylsworth added 12 digs and six assists.
  • Pelegrin led the Fort Wayne offense with 24 kills.

Up Next
Loyola visits Ball State tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Central.

Courtesy of Fort Wayne:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Despite a career-high 24 kills from Pelegrin Vargas, No. 14 Fort Wayne fell to No. 6 Loyola Chicago 3-2 (27-25, 25-19, 23-25, 18-25, 15-12) on Arnie Ball Court on Friday (Feb. 16).

Fort Wayne and Loyola traded points for most of the first set, and the Mastodons even had a set point opportunity. Both squads hit .308 for the set, and Vargas led the ‘Dons with seven first-set kills.

The Ramblers took an early lead in the second, jumping to a 6-1 lead. The ‘Dons did not get any closer than two points to Loyola in the set. The Ramblers hit .571 for the set.

The Mastodons trailed the majority of the first half of the third set, but after a timeout at 15-13 Loyola, the ‘Dons went on a 6-3 run to take the lead. This was capped off by a service ace from Kade BontragerColton Stone had an ace of his own in a mini-run of three straight just a few points later. Vargas had seven more kills in the third. Kolbie Knorr had six digs to lead a 15-dig third set for the ‘Dons.

The ‘Dons jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the fourth before Loyola answered with a 5-1 run. The set was back-and-forth until the Mastodons went on a 7-2 run to open up a 24-16 lead. Tony Pricefinished up the set to even at two apiece with a kill. Price had four, and Vargas had five to charge the ‘Dons back. Fort Wayne had 17 digs in the fourth set alone.

Loyola led 8-6 at the switch in the fifth, but a kill from Vargas evened the score at 10 each. He hit .383 for the match. Loyola went on to snag five of the final seven points of the match.

Michael Keegan finished with a double-double, earning 47 assists and 12 digs. Knorr finished with 10 digs. Price finished with 11 kills and eight digs, and Stone had a 12-2-27 line for .370 with eight digs, as well as three aces. Fort Wayne ended with 49 digs as a team and nine aces, both season-highs.

Fort Wayne falls to 9-3, 1-2 MIVA and Loyola improves to 10-2, 3-0. The Mastodons return to the court on Saturday (Feb. 17) to face No. 8 Lewis. The Flyers are coming off a straight-set loss to Ball State.

Leave a Reply

avatar

Don't want to miss anything?

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive our latest updates!