The Lindenwood men's volleyball team (4-7, 1-3 MIVA) returns home to take on #12 Loyola Chicago (8-7, 3-2 MIVA) this weekend with a pair of matches inside Hyland Arena on Friday and Saturday. Both games are set for 7:00 p.m.

SERIES INFORMATION - LOYOLA
Overall: Loyola leads 22-3
In St. Charles: 3-7
In Chicago: 0-15
Neutral: 0-0
Last Meeting: March. 31, 2023, Loyola 3-0

FIRST SERVE

• Lindenwood is coming off a four-set win over #13 Lewis last Friday. After dropping the first stanza, the Lions won the next three to pick up the victory.
• The Lions played a solid all-around game after the first set, and held Lewi to a .185 hit percentage, its lowest mark of the year.
• A big reason for that was Noah Varga who tallied 18 receptions without an error and had 11 digs. This earned him MIVA Defensive Player of the Week honors.
• In the match, Lindenwood had a season-best 14 service aces, led by AJ Lewis who had seven.
• Lewis finished the match with 15 kills and hit .500. To go along with those seven aces, Lewis also had nine digs.
• Ian Schuller paced the squad with 16 terminations, while also hitting an outstanding .565.
• Overall, the Lions hit .370 in the match.
• Loyola will be the third-straight ranked team Lindenwood will play as the Ramblers enter this week ranked 12^th in the polls.
• All three of Lindenwood's wins in the season series have come at home with the last coming on February 15, 2020.
• Connor Sheehan continues to lead the conference with 11.47 assists per set.
• Lindenwood ranks inside the top three of the conference in assists (12.85), and kills (13.44) per set.
• Head coach Joe Kosciw enters his seventh season at the helm of the program and his 11^th at Lindenwood.

2024 OUTLOOK
The Lindenwood men's volleyball team currently has 11 matchups against ranked teams on its 2024 schedule. The squad was picked to finished sixth in the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Preseason Poll earning 41 points. Lindenwood returns key pieces to their lineup for 2024, including A.J. Lewis, RaShawn Bonner, and Ian Schuller, who all garnered all-conference honors a year ago. Lewis was named to the preseason all-MIVA team for the upcoming year. Last season, Lewis led the team with 39 service aces and was second on the team with 249 digs.

UP NEXT
Lindenwood will travel to McKendree next Wednesday, February 28, before hosting Lincoln Memorial on Friday, March 1. Both games are set for 7:00 p.m.