The Lindenwood men's volleyball team opened the 2012 Lindenwood Invitational with a pair of victories on Friday at Hyland Arena. The Lions swept Rust in their opening match of the tournament and then defeated Graceland later in the evening in five sets.
Lindenwood won the closest match of the day by a 14-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-19, and 15-11 score over Graceland. The momentum of the match changed early in the fourth set when Lindenwood scored five straight points, including three solo blocks in a row, with two coming from
Michael Adams. The Lions eventually led by as many as eight points and forced a fifth set.
In the fifth set, Lindenwood's middle hitters took over as
Logan Jarus and
Scott Siwicki combined for five kills in just seven attempts. The Yellowjackets cut Lindenwood's early lead to two at 10-8, but Lindenwood clinched the victory at that point with a kill by
Jack Mitchell and back-to-back aces from Adams.
Lindenwood was outhit for the match, but it had a .255 mark for the final two sets, compared to a .044 mark for Graceland in that span. The Lions had 12 blocks in the match, including seven in the final two sets.
Jarus finished the match with 10 kills and no errors in 19 attempts. Adams had a team-high 14 kills and
JM Plummer and Mitchell were also in double-figures.
Christopher Cox had 43 assists, Mitchell collected a team-high 10 digs, and Siwicki had four blocks.
In the first match, Lindenwood defeated Rust by scores of 25-13, 25-22, and 25-12. The Lions had 29 more kills in the match and served up 10 aces. Lindenwood's defense held Rust to just a .016 hitting percentage.
Christopher Cox led the Lions with a double-double of 10 kills and 13 assists.
Austin Tudor also had 10 kills.
Casey Calder and Mitchell both had six kills and a .556 hitting percentage.
Micah Steiner had five service aces and
Evan Bruton had three.
David Poole had a team-high 11 digs and Tudor had a team-high three blocks.
Lindenwood improves to 5-2 on the season with the victories. The Lions will continue play on Saturday at their annual tournament with an 11:30 a.m. match versus Grand View and a 3:30 p.m. contest against Park.
