Graduate student Ella Loussia collected her 1,000th career kill as the Canisius volleyball team swept Belmont 3-0 in its final match at the Youngstown State Invitational in Youngstown, Ohio Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Golden Griffins improve to 2-1 on the young season, while the Bruins slipped to 1-2 with the loss.
Loussia led all players in the match with ten kills. Her ninth kill of the match, which set-up match-point for the Blue and Gold late in the third set, marked the 1,000th kill of her career, the most for any active player on the Canisius roster. She also tied a career-high with eight service aces in the contest to give her 125 aces for her career, making her just the fifth player in program history to reach that career milestone.
Junior Avery Dole notched her third consecutive double-double with 26 assists and 10 digs, while junior libero Jillian Hanna posted in nine digs as well. At the net, sophomore Bella Mosquera earned five total blocks, highlighted by the team’s two solo blocks on the day. As a team, Canisius hit .217 (33-13-92) in the win while holding the Belmont offense to a hitting percentage of just .061 (26-20-99).
Canisius came out of the gate hot, taking advantage of 12 attack errors by Belmont, while holding their hitting percentage to -.125 en route to a 25-13 set victory.
The Griffs continued to roll at the second set, jumping out to an early 6-2 lead. From there, the Bruins fought their way back into the match, using their own 6-2 run midway through the set to tie the match at 16-16, forcing a Canisius timeout.
Out of that timeout, the Griffs took control and never looked back, closing the set on a 9-4 run, paced by a pair of kills from Loussia and junior Kara Zaucha, to take the set 25-20 and a 2-0 match lead.
In the third set, Belmont took an early 7-3 lead, forcing a Griffs’ timeout. Out of that break, the Griffs got rolling offensively, going on an 8-0 run to tie the match, before taking the lead for good at 11-7. The Blue and Gold used two separate 3-0 runs along with a 4-0 push later in the third set to get past Belmont, 25-16.
MATCH NOTES:
• With the victory over Belmont, Canisius is now 2-1 through the first three matches of the season for the second consecutive year. This marks the first time in program history where the Griffs have opened the season 2-1 through the first three contests of the year in back-to-back campaigns.
• Saturday’s meeting with Belmont was the program’s first, and the win serves as the first victory over a school from the state of Tennessee.
• The 13 points allowed in the first set are the fewest for the Griffs since the team held Rider to just 10 points in the opening frame on Nov. 5, 2002.
• Loussia now sits 50 kills away from moving into top-10 all-time in program history for kills.
• Loussia previously had eight service aces in a match at Rider on Nov. 5, 2022.
UP NEXT:
Canisius will return to action Sept. 1-2 when the team travels to play in the Duquesne/Robert Morris Invitational in Pittsburgh, Pa.
