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LONG BEACH, Calif. — In its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance\u00a0and first-ever Regional Final, No. 9 Loyola Chicago fell in straight sets to No. 2 Long Beach State in the\u00a0Walter Pyramid on\u00a0Saturday, May 2.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grad\u00a0student Josh Schellinger<\/a> and junior opposite Aleksandar Sosa<\/a> led the Ramblers’ offense with 14 kills apiece on .500 and .347 hitting, respectively.\u00a0Sosa was an all-around unit, anchoring the defense with a team-high\u00a0six digs, matching his season-best.\u00a0Loyola out-blocked Long Beach State 6-4, paced by rookie Oskar Berg Mikkelsen<\/a> with\u00a0four.\u00a0<\/p>\n Coach Quote:\u00a0 How It Happened\u00a0 SET 2 |\u00a0Long Beach State\u00a0took the first point of the second set and carried the lead throughout most of the frame. Loyola’s\u00a0defense was on point,\u00a0putting up\u00a04.5\u00a0blocks in the frame, but it\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0enough to limit Long Beach State, who took its largest lead of the match at 22-15. The Ramblers clawed back as\u00a0Sosa spiked through the teeth of the defense to stave off the first set point.\u00a0Junior pin\u00a0Jake Read<\/a>\u00a0followed it up with\u00a0a solo\u00a0stuff to hold the Beach off another time, but the host team prevailed for a 25-21 victory and a 2-0 lead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n SET 3 |\u00a0Loyola struggled from the service line all night, especially in the third frame, giving up eight points to errors. Read was the sparkplug off the bench for the Ramblers, starting the final set and recording a perfect reception percentage on 10 attempts.\u00a0The stanza saw nail-biting rallies and diving plays on both sides, but Loyola\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0outlast Long Beach State, who clinched the match with a 25-19 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inside the Box Score\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n“Congratulations to Long Beach\u00a0tonight,\u00a0they’re\u00a0an incredible team.\u00a0I’m\u00a0super proud of my guys and our seniors, and how we battled tonight.\u00a0It was great to be back in the tournament again this year and get that first win since 2015.\u00a0A bigger piece of that is to allow these guys to have that experience, and the\u00a0sucess\u00a0of that experience in the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0Compounding that from last year to this year, and this is a program\u00a0that’s\u00a0going to continue to grow, and expect\u00a0ourselves\u00a0to be in the tournament\u00a0and expect\u00a0ourselves\u00a0to win those matches and continue the success.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSET 1 |\u00a0The Beach started the scoring\u00a0in set one,\u00a0which saw 11 tied scores. The Ramblers held the advantage\u00a0a few times\u00a0throughout but\u00a0had trouble against the No. 1 serving team in the country.\u00a0Loyola grabbed a quick 12-11 lead after a relentless\u00a0defensive\u00a0effort from\u00a0Fabikovic, who found the back corner a few points later.\u00a0Schellinger and Sosa\u00a0were explosive for the Ramblers,\u00a0combining for\u00a010 kills on .465 hitting.\u00a0Long Beach State closed the opener, 25-21,\u00a0on a 4-1 run.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n