The Lindenwood men's volleyball knocked off its first nationally-ranked opponent in two seasons on Saturday afternoon in Hyland Arena. The Lions defeated No. 9 Loyola Chicago in four sets by scores of 25-18, 25-23, 22-25, and 25-12.
 
In the first set, the Lions took advantage of errors by the Ramblers to take a 1-0 lead. Loyola had a negative hitting percentage in the set, and finished with nine hitting errors and six service errors. Lindenwood trailed 8-6 early, but score eight unanswered points. The Ramblers had six hitting errors in that run which put the Lions ahead for good.
 
Lindenwood trailed late in the second set by a 22-20 score, but after a sideout, Michael Chard had back-to-back aces. The Ramblers tied the game at 23, but a Blake Koppel kill and Connor Hipelius gave the Lions the set victory.
 
Loyola jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third set. The Lions cut their deficit to one numerous times, but could never tie or take the lead.
 
In the final set, it was all Lindenwood as its scored on 64 percent of its serves. The score was tied 5-5 early on, but Lindenwood went on an 11-1 run to put the game away. Koppel served five points during that run and Nathan Van Dellen had four points on his serve.
 
Lindenwood hit .207 for the match and held the Ramblers to a .118 mark. On the serve, the Lions had six aces and 12 serving errors, while Loyola recorded just three aces and 19 errors. The Lions also had seven more digs and three more blocks.
 
Koppel led the Lions with 17 kills, and Chard had a double-double of 10 kills and 10 digs, and also had three aces. Adam Brewster led the team with 32 assists and eight blocks, and Ryan Vorderer had a team-high 14 digs. Connor Hipelius had 12.5 points, including seven blocks, six kills and two aces.
 
Lindenwood improves to 2-14 on the season and 2-9 in the MIVA. The Lions travel to Tennessee next week for contests against King and Lees-McRae.