ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Lindenwood Men's Volleyball team (2-1, 0-0 MIVA) upset #12 CSUN in four sets on Friday night inside of Hyland Arena by scores of 23-25, 30-28, 28-26, and 25-20. Four different Lions finished the match with double digit kills as Owen Walsh led the way with 14 on a .722 hitting percentage. Zach Solomon also had a big night for Lindenwood, finishing with a match-high 47 assists and tied for a match-high in service aces with three along with teammate Brendan Louthain.

The whole match was back and forth the whole way and in the first set alone there was 18 times that the score was tied and seven different lead changes. Caden Whiteside recorded four kills in the opening set while Brendan Louthain and Owen Walsh each added three of their own, but the Matadors took the opening set 25-23 after CSUN went on a 5-1 run late in the set to take a 23-19 lead in which the Lions could not recover from the four point deficit. In the second set, Whiteside added his fifth kill of the match to put the Lions in front 11-9 but just like in set one, CSUN would respond with a 5-0 run to take the lead at 14-11 midway through. Following the run by CSUN, Owen Walsh captured a kill and Zach Solomon recorded a service ace as apart of a 3-0 run by the Lions to tie the set at 14. The two teams would trade the next several points as the set remained tied at 20-20. Amir Grant and Whiteside picked up back-to-back kills to give Lindenwood a two point lead at 22-20 and Walsh added a kill a few points later to give the Lions a set point opportunity. CSUN continued to fight back and eventually tied up the set yet again at 24-24, but Lindenwood stayed composed and ended the second set on a 3-1 run behind back-to-back kills from Walsh to tie up the match at one. 

In set three, CSUN had a 17-13 lead in the later part of the set, but the defense stepped up in a big way recording four total blocks over the next five points to tie it at 18. Brendan Louthain and Zach Solomon would then combine for two kills and two service aces to put Lindenwood up 22-19 but the Matadors responded with a 3-0 run to even the score at 22. Similar to the previous two sets, both teams would each go on 2-0 runs as Luke Kraft recorded a kill and a block assist to give LU another set point opportunity before CSUN tied the match at 24 with a 2-0 run of their own. Kraft recorded another kill to put the Lions in front and a service error and attack error by CSUN gave Lindenwood a 2-1 lead through three sets. In the fourth and final set, the Lions used a 5-0 run early on in the set thanks to a kill from Solomon and blocks from Grant and Whiteside to put Lindenwood in front 13-10. LU hung on to that lead for the rest of the set and upset #12 CSUN in the final frame by a score of 25-20. 

"Tonight was a great battle for our home opener against CSUN." said head coach Joe Kosciw. "Both teams went back and forth exchanging runs throughout the match and that made for a fun environment. Our guys played with a lot of grit and worked hard to pull out a great win. There was a lot of trust and communication on the court and it continued to get better as the match went on. I'm proud of the guys effort tonight and hopefully we will be ready to defend home court again tomorrow night."  

As a team, the Lions finished with a hitting percentage of .350 and totaled 11.5 blocks as Amir Grant led the team in blocks with four. Grant also added 11 kills, while Louthain produced 12 kills, and Whiteside ended with 13 kills. Lindenwood will wrap up the Under Armour Challenge tomorrow night at 7 p.m CT as they will face Menlo College.