NEW ORLEANS - Two sides brought together by a tragedy shifted to competitors Friday night in a battle towards the top of the congested early conference standings. Loyola (9-6, 4-1 SSAC) nabbed a 3-0 win over Faulkner (9-9, 3-2 SSAC) in the home-away-from-home for the Wolf Pack at Xavier's Convocation Center. 

In their first game back in their hometown since being displaced from NOLA due to Hurricane Ida at the end of August, Loyola poetically welcomed the Lady Eagle squad that welcomed them into Montgomery to ride out the storm and repair work and rode the emotion to a 25-21, 25-21, 25-19 sweep on the first day of October. 

Tied at 13 in the first set, Loyola rattled off a 4-0 run to pull away enough to see out the first set despite Faulkner pulling within one twice. The Lady Eagles dropped the second set in similar fashion, trailing just 18-16 but another 4-0 run featuring two kills, a Faulkner attack error and another kill from the Wolf Pack pushed the hosts over the finish line. 

Hannah Bryan hit her 10th kill of the night to put the Lady Eagles ahead 19-17, but after a timeout Loyola went on an 8-0 closeout run to seal the match. 

Faulkner's offense was fairly mistake free in the evening with just 14 attack errors, but the Loyola attackers out-killed Faulkner 51-32 despite hitting just .062 percent higher during the match. Alyssa Stagner led the squad in both digs and assists with 28 and 19. 

The Lady Eagles sit in 5th behind a four-way tie for first including Loyola after five league matches. Saturday, Faulkner travels to William Carey to face the Crusaders who are also in the tie for first. The match in Hattiesburg is set for 1 p.m.