The first time on the court against the school’s biggest rivalry could hardly have gone better for setter Ryan McElligott.
McElligott guided the offense to a .418 attack percentage as No. 10 Loyola swept No. 13 Lewis 25-23, 25-23, 25-19 on Wednesday in Romeoville, Illinois.
The Ramblers hit more than .500 in each of the final two games, including a match-high .560 attack percentage with one error in the third game to secure the win. In addition, Loyola playing in front of a road crowd of 1,000 people committed a conference-season eight attack errors for the match.
Two Loyola players finished with double-digit kills and hit more than .400 in the victory.
Pin-hitter Parker Van Buren led all players with 14 kills on a .500 attack percentage. Van Buren in the second game also had a game-high six kills with the final kill being part of a 5-1 run to rally from a two-point deficit and close out the game.
Outside attacker Jake Reed added 10 kills on a .450 attack percentage and did not commit an attack error until midway through the second game.
Along with running the offense, McElligott had a season-high five kills with three kills coming in the final game.
Lewis was held to a zero attack percentage in the opening game and finished the match with a .219 attack percentage.
The Flyers played this rivalry match with setter Tyler Morgan. Freshman Diego Estrada started in place of Morgan.
Loyola out-blocked Lewis 9 to 3 highlighted with Read having a match-high five blocks. Middle attacker Nicodemus Meyer added four blocks, while middle attacker Jimmy Meinhart had three blocks.
Lewis outside attacker Max Roquet in the loss had a team-high 10 kills on a .333 attack percentage, and outside attacker Daneil Haber contributed eight kills. Roquet and Haber, though, were the only Flyers to have at least five kills and hit more than .200.