Doubt started to creep onto Loyola’s side of the court last week, but the Ramblers beat it back to snap a two-match losing streak with their win over Wilmette rival Regina Dominican.
The 25-20, 15-25, 25-20 victory over the Panthers improved the Ramblers to 3-2 in the GCAC Red.
“We needed that feeling of winning again,” said junior outside hitter Anna Pontarelli, whose team lost to Mother McAuley in two sets earlier in the week.
Loyola then went 3-2 at Stevenson’s tournament Saturday to enter the week 15-7 overall. The Ramblers beat Grant, Wheeling and McHenry and lost to Stevenson and Libertyville.
“When you’re in the midst of a losing streak, you think to yourself, ‘Are we really that bad?’” Loyola coach Jenny Morris said after the victory over Regina. “But we came out strong in that first game.”
Middle hitter Kaitlin Mohr led Loyola with eight kills. Kailey Carini finished with seven kills, including four in the first set.
“She was on fire,” the coach said of Carini. “And almost every time we got Kaitlin the ball, she scored. We just weren’t getting her the ball enough.”
Loyola trailed Regina midway through the third set and looked on its way to adding another loss to the streak. But the Ramblers went on a 5-0 run to go up 20-16. They then put down three kills to win three of the final four points.
“That’s a good sign, and it makes me proud,” Morris said of the late-set surge. “It reinforces what we’ve done in practice. We just had to translate that into games.”
Loyola was scheduled to play Lake Forest on Monday and Mt. Assisi on Thursday in a league match. The Ramblers are off this weekend.
“That wasn’t us,” Pontarelli said of Loyola’s recent slide. “We were not playing our game.”
