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Loyola Quiets Critics with Dominant National Championship Win Over Stanford

You knew it was going to be a special night when Wayne Messmer was brought out to sing the national anthem. Thursday night set the stage for an exciting national championship final. Two tightly contested semi-final matches decided in the fifth set by less than a handful of points. Stanford had upset BYU after two previous failures during the regular season and a third in MPSF championship match. Loyola was expected to win but taken to five by a scrappy Penn State team. Add in the meme’s of “west coast men’s volleyball legacy domination” and Loyola “has an easy schedule” to the mix and you have a great setup for conversation and controversy. Saturday night an answer was provided for the 2014 season.


The first set was tightly contested until the 14 – 13 mark when James Shaw scored on a poorly passed ball at the net. Loyola went on a 5 point run consuming both of Stanford’s time outs. After a Stanford service error into the net, Joe Smalzer went back to the service line and generated another 3 point run on tough serving resulting in 2 overpass kills for Olson. This set was over and ended 25 – 17 Loyola. Loyola hit .696 versus Stanford’s .296 for the set.


The second set started even until the 9 – 9 mark. Stanford started a 5 point run with a stuff of Joe Smalzer on the rights side. James Shaw went to the service line and brought back-to-back service aces with a right line rip and an off-speed roll shot serve. Loyola never recovered from this run. Stanford added two more 3 point runs before winning 25 – 19 on Loyola service error into the net. Stanford hit .444 versus Loyola’s .241. In addition to Shaw’s two ace service performance, Brian Cook and Eric Mochalski added one each bringing the total to 4 aces for set two.


Loyola jumped out to a 5 – 2 with Loyola’s Olson winning a joust. The match bounced between a 1 to 3 point spread until the 13 – 11 mark. Loyola pushed three points in a row including a Thomas Jaeschke back row kill and a second on an overpass kill generated by a tough Cody Caldwell serve. Brain Cook’s tool shot helped Stanford close the gap to 20 – 17 score. Joe Smalzer answered with a kill from the right side setup by a great Peter Jasaitis pancake save. The gap widened with a Smalzer service ace and a Stanford 4 hit ball handling error. He closed the set with a line shot that hit the tape and dropped to the floor resulting in a 25 – 19 score. Loyola hit .500 versus Stanford’s .267 for the set.


The fourth set was all Loyola starting with a Smalzer kill from the right side. The set busted open after a Steve Irvin service error starting a 7 point Loyola run punctuated with a Jaeschke ace and several Stanford hitting errors. Stanford made a small push in the middle of the set with a 3 point run but it was all Loyola. Loyola’s 5.5 blocks and Stanford’s multiple hitting errors resulted in a Stanford .040 hitting percentage. The Loyola home crowd sensed the end result early in the set and brought the noise, cheers and chants throughout the set. The 25 – 15 victory resulted in a noisy award ceremony with the majority of the crowd staying throughout.


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