PALO ALTO, Calif. – The Loyola Marymount University women's volleyball team (21-10) played a competitive final match of the season, but the top-ranked Stanford Cardinal (30-1) proved to be too much, winning in straight sets, 25-20, 25-15, 25-17.
 
"There's always a game plan," said Head Coach Aaron Mansfield. "Just like with any other match, some times that game plan works initially and sometimes it doesn't. You want to adapt as you go. It just seems like they have a couple athletes and players that we didn't necessary have an answer for, but there were numerous opportunities to dig some balls that didn't and execute our floor defense better, but it is a testament to them. They did a lot of different shots at a lot of different paces. It's more hats off to them, then what we could have done differently."
 
The game opened with 10 ties and three lead changes in the opening set. The Lions led 9-6 early on, before Stanford came back to even the score. The game was tied as late as 14-14 before the Cardinal built up their lead.
 
Stanford never trailed in the second set, but LMU did lead 1-0 and 2-1 to begin the third. With the Cardinal ahead later in the set, the Lions scored four straight with Meredith Teague serving to make it a 11-12 Stanford lead. LMU continued to fight, but Stanford pulled away late.
 
Sara Kovac led the attack for the Lions in her final contest, recording 12 kills. LMU's junior setter Tess Reid totaled 30 assists, all while hitting an efficient 75 percent with three kills. Bo Culo finished with a team-high seven digs.
 
The Lions recorded three service aces, and only allowed one to the Cardinal.
 
"The BYU match obviously turned everything around for us," said Mansfield. "Our team played so free and so confident and didn't seem to get rattled by anything BYU through at us. That win and then the selection show was a really cool moment for our team. I was just talking to our team in the locker room about our younger players understanding what it takes to get here. We played a really good Duke team last night that we were able to beat, then we ran into a team that is better than us right now. There are so many lessons to take away, and we are so proud of this group for the resiliency to bounce back from four matches in six days. It's a special group, and I'm going to miss them a ton."
 
In their 14^thNCAA Championship, the Lions improve their total record to 9-14 in the Tournament. Including this year, LMU has advanced past the first round in half of their NCAA Tournament appearances.