ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Lindenwood men's volleyball team beat McKendree in a thrilling four set fashion on Wednesday night in Lebanon, Illinois. 

"The guys stayed composed especially for our first conference road trip this year," said Head Coach Joe Kosciw. "This was a great team win even though the stats may have not showed it. A different guy was stepping up in key situations to make plays and the bench was awesome tonight. The group showed a lot of grit and battled a tough McKendree team late in sets 3 and 4 to pull those sets out late. I'm proud of the way the group fought and worked hard for the win tonight. Great team win!"

OVERVIEW
Lindenwood was dominant out of the gate, playing in such a way that McKendree was clearly not ready for. The Lions held their lead for the entire set, and no matter how many times the Bearcats tried to come back, Lindenwood secured the 25-17 victory with ease.

Set two went to the Bearcats by the same exact score. This time, the Lions just had various errors creep in and McKendree capitalized on these weaker points in their attack. 

Things were tight all throughout set three, with neither team really being able to pull away from one another at any given point. The Bearcats called a timeout with Lindenwood leading 22-21, then were able to tie the game up as a result. Lindenwood answered with a hard fought point, then shortly after, things sat at 23-23. McKendree's 24th point was another hard fought one, so the Lions called a timeout to slow things down before game point. A Clay Wieter, Connor Sheehan back to Wieter point kept the Lions back in it, and despite a stellar serve from Jacob Christopher, the Bearcats held on to tie it up on a long rally. McKendree led 26-25, but in came the Lions once again to tie it up. The Lions continued to show that grit of theirs, however, walking away with a 28-26 overtime victory in the third.

The fourth set was just as close of a race, with the Lions really applying pressure in all areas of the court, not letting McKendree walk away with some easy fourth set victory on their home court. The Bearcats did have a bit of a late lead, and with a late serving run from super-sub Eric Winn, things sat with the Lions trailing just 22-23. Then, with the score up 24-23 Bearcats, RaShawn Bonner came up with a massive solo block to tie things up at 24s. Bonner would then be apart of the huge triple block with A.J. Lewis and Connor Sheehan to make things 26-25 Lions. 26-26 came next, and a powerful kill from tonight's leading attacker Ian Schuller would give Lindenwood the 27-26 lead. A McKendree error would give the Lions another 28-26 victory, downing the Bearcats in four intense sets. 

LEADERS
Ian Schuller (16 K, .406 A%, 4 DIGS)
Rashawn Bonner (13 K, 6 BLK, 3 DIGS)
Connor Sheehan (39 ASST, 11 DIGS, 5 BLKS)

UP NEXT
The Lions will head to Lewis for a Friday night match at 5:00 p.m. in Romeoville, Illinois.