Tough fought 5 set loss to Pepperdine at home. Loyola gave itself chances but Pepperdine came through when they needed it. Good rebound sweep against Harvard.

AVCA Coaches Poll: Loyola slips one spot to 9th.
https://www.avca.org/polls/dii-men/1-16-2017.html

Off the Block Media Poll: Loyola drops from 6th to 8th.
http://www.offtheblockblog.com/2017/01/ ... edia-poll/

FloVolleyball Rankings: Loyola actually moves up from 8th to 6th.
http://www.flovolleyball.tv/ranking/183 ... division-i

I think we're probably right in that 7-9 range right now. The loss to Pepperdine was terrible, because we won the first two out of three sets, and we had an early lead in the fourth and fifth sets. Letting them come back on the road when we take a 2-1 lead at home is a bad sign. And then Lewis beat Pepperdine.... Ouch.

I'm holding out hope we're better than Long Beach State (lost to USC), Hawaii, and UC Irvine. I think all year long it's going to be a battle between Ohio State and UCLA. Maybe we can improve enough to sneak in a big win late in the year. And we MUST sweep Lewis for an outside chance at the at large bid.

After losing to Penn St. Lewis beats them in 5. With that said, both Pepperdine and Penn St. played Lewis the next day. I could see emotional and physical fatigue setting in after playing a 5 set game and then playing the next day. It doesn't excuse us from losing 2 games in 5 especially when one was being up 2-1 at home. I still think we're a better team than Lewis, but it's close. If we want to beat them, we'll need to figure out how to win the close games

This young group is getting good experience against tough teams at home on on the road. Not sure what happened to Ian Cowen in the George Mason match. He was in for one set and had one assist. Dane LeClair played all five sets. The box score was ugly for both teams. Neither hit over .200 but Loyola eeked it out coming back from 0-2 by winning three sets with a two point margin in each.