Sept. 7, 2005

Box Score

Champaign, Ill. - Visiting Loyola (0-4) struggled offensively, finishing with 33 hitting errors and a -.039 hitting percentage for the match, in a 3-0 (30-18, 30-22, 30-13) loss at Illinois (6-0) this evening in front of 1,517 at Huff Hall in Champaign, Ill.

"I am disappointed in the way we came out tonight," said Marcie Bomhack. "We came out flat and Illinois took advantage. We need to come back and focus on moving forward and start playing with confidence again. The vast majority of our season is still ahead of us and we just need to get back on track and get back to playing confident, winning volleyball."

The Ramblers, who were plagued by erratic hitting in weekend losses to Oklahoma and Indiana, again struggled to find the court against the Fighting Illini. The teams battled to a 9-9 tie in game one before a 16-3 Illinois run gave the hosts a commanding lead. Game two saw LU suffer a similar fate, as the Illini turned a 16-16 deadlock into a comfortable 30-22 win. A 13-3 spurt early in game three pushed Illinois to a 20-10 lead and they were able to cruise from there.

Freshman Audrey Davis had seven kills to lead the Ramblers. Katie Henry and Shelby Henriksen added five apiece while Courtney Ashley finished with 10 digs to lead the defensive effort.

Loyola returns to the court this weekend, making the short trip to DePaul for the Chicago Challenge, where it will face off with Northwestern on Friday night before taking on Illinois-Chicago and DePaul on Saturday.