So last night Loyola lost a five game match to St. Francis. Tonight they beat #10 Penn State-- with one of the steepest home court advantages-- in four sets.

I really can't figure out this team. Wins against Penn State (home and away), UC Irvine, at Lewis, home against St. Francis (sweep). Losses at St. Francis, at Ball State (3-1), swept twice by Ohio State, at home to UCSB.

I'm only seen the team play in the last month or so BUT - what has happened to their serve. Has it been a problem all season?

Serving has been inconsistent all season, and tends to be bad more times than good. Hutz and Novotny have been pretty good on their serves all year but the other guys have been hit or miss. It's the same with the passing. A couple guys will pass well but others will struggle and that's when some losses come. Against Ohio State no one passed well and as a result the offense struggled and OSU just took all the games. The key to volleyball is serving and passing. If they get those two down, they can be at the final four again.

The win against UC-Irvine looked good at the time back in early January. It turns out after a couple of months that UCI is majorly underperforming compared to last year. There is a chance they may not even make their own conference tournament.

Penn State is inconsistent also. They can't pass consistently either. They just lost to St. Francis too... at home, which snapped an 18 year streak of winning conference home games dating back to 1998.

Lewis is weaker too this year. They lost 3 senior pin hitters. Just imagine if Loyola lost Caldwell, Jaeschke, and Smalzer at the same time.

Ohio State is stronger and was my pick to win the conference. They have a couple of solid pin hitters (and one potential National Player of the Year), much like Loyola had in Caldwell and Jaeschke. It's is Ohio State's conference to lose. They are #1 in the country and had a big win at then #1 Long Beach recently. They are having the type of season Loyola had in 2014 and Lewis had in 2015. If they are upset in the MIVA, they are currently likely to get one of the at-large bids.

Ball State (David Letterman's alma mater) is a tad stronger this year. They won at Ohio State.

The Loyola match against Ball State on April 9th may be a fight for 2nd place which is important for a home match in the MIVA conference Semifinals.

Back to Loyola issues. It's been a bit of a revolving door at outside hitter. Novotny and Murray have had injuries. Mahan and Tischler are freshman and getting a lot of time. Mahan seems to be the more consistent hitter of the two freshman. Novotny is very reliable when he doesn't get all the sets (like George Kamberos from a few years ago). When he does get a lot of sets, his efficiency goes down (gets blocked more). He's got a great overall game but being 6' 0" his margin of error is much smaller. That said, we'll need him for this stretch run. He's a senior and a leader on this squad and as I've mentioned already, a pretty solid player overall. Murray is a wild card. He had a couple of different injury stints I believe. He played well for the most part when he was in the lineup. He's been dressed to play but hasn't seen action in a while. He started several matches early in the season.

Jendryk had the game of a lifetime with 24 kills and hitting .512 in the loss to St. Francis. He had the most hitting attempts on the team that night. That never happens with a middle hitter. It's a sign that Loyola passed well enough and possibly combined with Hutz really forcing it to Jendryk. Of course he had an equally bad game the next night at Penn State having 7 kills and hitting .000. Go figure. For the most part, Olson and Jendryk have been doing their thing this year. But when the passing isn't there, as RamblinTank22 says, they can't run the middles. Novotny and Selsky should be fine. We'll see if Mahan can complete the back line on the receive.

Serving has been down also. Not as strong as Caldwell and Jaeschke. Caldwell was great at placement and Jaeschke was bombs away. They are missing that this year. Novotny is bombs away and usually consistent but not like Jaeschke was. The other three outsides are pretty much getting it in when they can.

Gevis has been out with a fractured foot/ankle (depending on your source). But Plaisted has been playing very well. Career high 22 kills at Penn State.

This team will have to grind it out come tournament time. It really does all start with the serving and passing.