CHICAGO, Ill. - In the second taste of ranked competition this season, the St. Francis Brooklyn men's volleyball team closed out the weekend with battle against ninth-ranked Loyola Chicago at Gentile Arena.
Despite a season-best performance from Bartek Zielinski, the Terriers dropped their first meeting with the Ramblers in three sets.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Terriers stepped out on the right foot in the opening set. St. Francis sided out the first seven Loyola points and Andrea Lancianese swung for his first kill of the night to give the visitors an 8-7 lead. It was point for point through the match under the Ramblers rattled off three points in a take their largest lead to that point, 16-14. Loyola looked to close the door with a five-point run but Matt Mongin kept the set alive with his lone kill of the match. Two Ramblers errors later, the Terriers were within four points of the lead. Loyola scored the match point on the next serve for a 25-20 victory.
The 20 points scored were the most by the Terriers in any set.
Battling back in the second set, St. Francis had its best run of the night as Bartek Zielinski logged two of his 14 kills in a 4-0 streak that gave the Terriers an 8-6 advantage. The mistakes caught up to SFBK later in the set, falling behind with 10 unforced errors. Four different Ramblers logged a point in their final run of the period, finishing with four unanswered point.
Loyola saved its best hitting for the third set, swinging at a .667 clip. Despite the opposing offense, SFBK got out to an 8-2 start. Matt Mongin dropped a pair of consecutive aces and Zielinski and Canyon Tuman combined for three kills and a combo block in the run. It took a 9-1 Loyola run to surmount the Terrier advantage.
The Ramblers extended their lead late with three straight points and won the final set 25-19.
TEAM LEADERS
Zielinski played his best offensive of the season so far, logging 14 kills on 25 attempts (.320). He added two blocks and two digs.
Nicola Iannelli returned to form at libero, accumulating 11 digs and four assists, his third match this season with double-digit kills.
Matt Mongin totaled 20+ assists for the fifth time this season, finish with 23 digs, 8 digs, two aces, and one kill.
Canyon Tuman tacked on six kills and two blocks.
NEXT UP: The Terriers face their second former conference foe this season on Feb. 11, traveling to Princeton for match with the defending EIVA champion Tigers.
