On Friday night the women’s volleyball team welcomed the Lafayette Leopards to Reitz Arena to play in their fifth Patriot League game of the season. With this win, the Greyhounds moved to a 4-1 record in Patriot League play.

Graduate student Lauren Link and setter/opposite Kacy Sekunda ‘25 were key players in the match, leading the team in kills with 11 and 10 respectively. While she is usually a starting setter, Sekunda has recently been playing as a right-side hitter while Bryanne Soares ‘25 sets for the team. Soares posted an impressive 20 assists on the night, while also garnering 15 digs while defending Loyola’s side of the court. She was only rivaled in digs by libero Leah Hunter ‘26, who had 14 on the night.

Sekunda recorded her fifth triple double of the season with her 10 kills, 14 assists, and 12 digs in the game, while she hit a .400 hitting percentage on the night. The Greyhounds were firing on all cylinders, with middle hitters Mariah Sanabia ‘27 and graduate student Caitlin Churney racking up 12 kills between the two of them.

The Greyhounds performed well on Friday night, hardly falling behind the Leopards and routinely scoring six or seven points in a row. Despite a few long rallies and some points not ending in their favor, the Greyhounds scored consistently enough to pull out the 3-set win over Lafayette. Unfortunately, this was not the same outcome for Saturday’s match, in which the Hounds lost 2-3 in their five set game against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

In this match, the Greyhounds rallied from a 2-0 set deficit to tie the score at two sets to two. In the fifth set, the Hounds pulled away from Lehigh at multiple points using kills by Churney, Sekunda, and outside hitter Ava Nepkin ‘27 to garner 10-8 and 14-12 leads.

Unfortunately for the Hounds these strong rallies were not enough to hold off the Mountain Hawks. Two kills and a service on Lehigh’s side gave them the last three points they needed to pull out the victory. The Greyhounds fought hard throughout the match, and the back-and-forth rally scoring had fans on the edges of their seats. Avid volleyball fans Natalie Wheeler ‘27 and Shawna O’Brien ‘27 watched both games and shared their takes on how the team is doing after watching both matches.

“They have made a complete turnaround from last season. They’re definitely more cohesive as a team and they’re working together to get their wins,” Wheeler said.

“It was a very entertaining game this week against Lehigh as they went to five sets. They were down the first two sets and came back to fight and got to go to five. It was definitely an entertaining game to watch,” Wheeler said.

O’Brien shouted out two players who played well in the match. He discusses the Lehigh match.

“Mariah Sanabia and [Bryanne] Soares both caught my eye with their performances in the game,” O’Brien said.

The women’s volleyball team returns to Reitz Arena Friday evening to face off against the Colgate Raiders. Tune in to see the Greyhounds defend their home turf in this rival match.

The team’s prospects for this season will be good if they keep up the hard work according to O’Brien.

O’Brien said, “This team is very hardworking and talented, and I believe it has a high chance of making it into the tournament.”