The Lindenwood men's volleyball team (2-5, 0-2 MIVA) fell short against Loyola Chicago (6-5, 2-0 MIVA) on the road on Saturday night. 

OVERVIEW
The first two sets were neck-and-neck, with the Ramblers winning the first one 25-22, then the Lions winning the second 25-22. The stat lines for both Loyola and Lindenwood were almost identical, both teams giving each other little room for error.  

Some noteworthy performances came from Diego Negron, who played all four sets and totaled 16 kills, three set assists and three service aces. Negron was Lindenwood's leader in both kills and service aces, and also led both teams with 35 attacks on the night. AJ Lewis was next in line for the Lions with 11 kills and 19 attacks, while Phil Swartz and Alex Pappas each tallied eight kills. 

Connor Sheehan led both the Ramblers and Lions with a strong 46 set assists while also grabbing four digs, which was the second most of the night for Lindenwood behind Kyle Deutschmann, who had another strong defensive performance, tallying eight kills in the four sets. 

The third set got away from the Lions, however, despite it being extremely back and forth from the beginning. In the first few sequences, Loyola would score and Lindenwood would answer with a point right after, and this went on until the Ramblers went on a run after their 14th point. Lindenwood tried to answer the call, but the Ramblers came out on top with a 25-17 win. 

The fourth and final set was equally as close as the first two, resulting in a 23-25 loss to Loyola, who capitalized on their momentum swing from winning the third set. 

UP NEXT
The men's volleyball team will return to Hyland Arena for a Thursday matchup against Lewis University at 7:00 p.m.