ST. CHARLES, MO. - The Lindenwood men's volleyball team got their second victory of the year in a 3-0 sweep of the Missouri S&T Miners on Saturday night in Hyland Arena.
"We bounced back well after last night and found our rhythm as we went through the match," said Head Coach
Joe Kosciw. "Missouri S&T was scrappy and kept plays alive, and I thought we did a nice job being terminal in those rallies. This was a good win as we head into conference play next weekend."
OVERVIEW
The Lions executed each set with ease, starting with a strong 25-21 victory in the first. Although the visiting Miners were neck-in-neck with the Lions in just about every statistical category, the Lions held them off long enough to go up 1-0 heading into set two.
The second set is where Lindenwood truly started to outpace Missouri S&T, with the biggest differences between the two teams being total kills and team attacking percentages. The Lions compiled a strong .314 hitting percentage as a collective while also tallying 16 total kills, as opposed to the Miners' .077 on the attack and just seven total kills. The home team was also able to minimize errors much more in this set, forcing S&T to double them up with six total errors versus Lindenwood's three.
After downing the Miners in a 25-19 second set, set three was a breeze for the Lions, who held S&T to just 14 points to get their third and final victory. This was Lindenwood's most dominant set offensively, stringing together a .500 team hitting percentage after knocking down 19 kills on 30 attempts. The Lions edged the Miners in every single aspect of the stats this time besides blocks, where each team each tallied one total block.
Things were the most lopsided on the serve, with Lindenwood knocking down four service aces in the third set and a whopping nine overall as opposed to S&T's zero and one, respectively. The Lions' would end the night with a .292 team attacking percentage, but the Lindenwood defense was strong throughout the entirety of the match as well, recording 26 total digs as a group versus S&T's 18.
A.J. Lewis had an extremely impressive night, leading the way in both the kills and attacking percentage categories for the Lions' after tallying 11 kills and a .733 hitting percentage. The senior standout also had the highest number of digs with eight total and tied Rashawn Bonner for the most service aces of the night with four total.
Bonner was one of three Lions who posted three blocks against the Miners, making him a leaderboard contender as well. He also had the second best hitting percentage of the night with his .500 that came from seven kills on 12 total attempts.
Carter Stenmark was another Lion who had a breakout night, recording the second-highest number of kills with nine total while also adding three blocks and four digs to his stat line.
Rodney Wallace was another Lion with a .500 hitting percentage after knocking down eight total kills against the Miners. The sophomore was the third and final leading blocker of the night by also adding three blocks to his stats.
LEADERS
A.J. Lewis (11 K, .733 A%, 4 SA, 8 DIGS)
Carter Stenmark (9 K, 3 BLK, 4 DIGS)
Rodney Wallace (8 K, .500 A%, 3 BLK)
UP NEXT
The Lions will stay in Hyland Arena for their next match, which will be on Friday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m. against Purdue Fort Wayne.
