The Lindenwood men’s volleyball team rebounded from its loss to Missouri Baptist earlier this week, and swept visiting Graceland 30-19, 30-23, 30-26 Friday night to conclude the home portion of its schedule.
Both teams exchanged points in the early stages of game one with neither squad building a lead larger than two. Already leading 10-9, a pair of Graceland service errors and a
Raphael Mattos ace fueled a mini-run by the Lions. From there, Lindenwood would begin to pull away. The lead would quickly balloon to 20-12, and after the Yellowjackets whittled it back down to five, the Lions rattled off five straight points to stymie any thoughts of a comeback.
With Lindenwood leading 12-11 in game two, the Lions began to methodically pull away. Consecutive kills by
Tim Huizinga and
Jack Mitchell gave Lindenwood a four point advantage. The Yellowjackets would claw their way back, cutting the lead to one at 18-17, but the Lions responded with a 4-0 run, and Graceland would never threaten again.
Tied at eight in the third game, Lindenwood scored eight straight points to seize momentum and never looked back. After numerous attempts to have senior
Tyler Dolph end the match with a kill, a Graceland player’s attack sailed out of bounds to seal the victory.
Mike Warren led the Lions with 15 kills and Huizinga added nine.
Mike Larson tallied 38 assists and
Mike Emerick chipped in with 14 digs.
Matt Schmack had a team-best five blocks.
Lindenwood (15-8, 5-3) will travel to Hannibal-LaGrange on Tuesday for a MAMVIC West matchup.