#2 Loyola travels to Romeoville to play #4 Lewis tonight. Both teams have one loss in conference with Lewis having the minor upset at Loyola several weeks ago in a #1 vs. #2 battle that ended Loyola's 40 match winning streak. This could have been another #1 vs. #2 had Lewis not have a let down a few days later at Ohio State. For once, thank you Ohio State. So the winner of tonight's match controls their own destiny for the #1 seed in the MIVA Conference Tournament. Lewis has great fan support for big matches and tonight will be no exception. Neil Carey Arena, even after the renovations and seating expansion, is a tiny stadium and will be at full capacity of 1,100.

Lewis has a lot of firepower much like Loyola. Lewis is a very old team and still have a few players with the experience of winning the MIVA in 2012. They lost only one senior and the new setter has stepped right into the role.

Loyola looks to be nearly at full strength. Despite Owen McAndrews not dressing for the last few weeks, it looks like Loyola may have the lineup they need down the stretch. Nick Olson has been back for several matches stepping in for Owen. Cody Caldwell is back after sitting out several matches since that Lewis match. I had tagged Cody to be the X-factor going into that match. We all know what Thomas Jaeschke can do. If Caldwell had been up to par, Loyola may be undefeated still. That's not to say that some other things didn't go right that night: Passing, which is Loyola's bread and butter, was weak. Caldwell just didn't look quick. For whatever reason, his swings were a little slower and he float served for most of the match. Since that match, Trevor Novotny has stepped up and played more than decently. Caldwell was back last week against IPFW and all the regular starters played at Ball State.

John Planek clearing the walkway and escorting fans out of the gym. Some things never change.

Another convincing 3-1 win for Lewis. Unless the team can make adjustments and win the MIVA tournament, there is the definite possibility that they will not have the chance to defend their title at Stanford. That would be too bad.

Lewis has put up a good block this year and is serving tough. They are not dominating but can have dominating runs. In both of their wins over Loyola, I was not totally impressed overall. Loyola can still put up a good block against Lewis' hitters and they slowed them down enough where a typically efficient Loyola offense would have had the Ramblers prevailing. But Lewis' block along with Loyola hitting out of bounds a lot (which could be attributed to Lewis's block) really did Loyola in along with Loyola not having the passing game they usually have. They had leads late in the 3rd and 4th sets (coming back down 10-4 to lead 22-20 in the 3rd and coming back down 19-13 in the 4th to lead 22-21), but the firepower just wasn't there combined with errors (hitting and serving) late in these sets.

Kudos for the traveling Loyola fans. Depsite the CBI Game 2 occuring simultaneously, there were a good few hundred Loyola fans in attendance. Shout out to Jeff Jendryk's dad who is very spirited during matches. And I just found out he was a former college mascot.

Thumbs down to a couple of Loyola kids who got tossed by John Planek (yes) for apparently being a little too rowdy I presume.