ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Lindenwood Men's Volleyball won their third straight match on Saturday night, defeating Menlo College in three sets by scores of 25-17, 25-11, 25-19.
Brendan Louthain had a match-high 12 kills on a .588 hitting percentage to lead Lindenwood offensively.
Zach Solomon added 23 assists and four service aces to his season total tonight as well, both of which were also match highs.
The first set was back-and-forth to start as both teams went on mini runs in the beginning as the score was tied up at 9-9. The Lions used a 5-1 run with the score knotted at nine to create some separtion from the Oaks, taking a 14-10 lead halfway through the first set.
Owen Walsh had his first kill of the match during the run and also recorded a block assist while
Caden Whiteside served up a service ace to highlight the run. Later in the set,
Brendan Louthain,
Luke Kraft, and Walsh recorded three straight kills for the Lions to put them in front 21-15 as Lindenwood went on to take the opener 25-17.
In set two, the Lions never trailed and took the middle set 25-11. LU had seven service aces in the second set, including three straight aces two different times from
Luke Kraft and
Zach Solomon. Whiteside picked up three of his five kills in the match in the set as well, while
Nick Dvorak added two kills. The final set saw Menlo take an early 3-2 lead, but the Lions responded with a 3-0 run thanks to a Louthain kill and block assist to give Lindenwood the lead for the remainder of the third and final set. With the Lions leading 16-14 midway through the set,
Ty Baumgarth recorded his first kill of the season to spark a 5-1 run that was too much for Menlo to overcome and the Lions went on to win their third straight match by taking the final set 25-19.
For the match, Lindenwood hit .400 and limited Menlo -.033. The defense recorded eight total blocks as Louthan, Walsh, and Whiteside each had 1.5 total blocks to tie for the team lead in that category. The Lions will remain at home for their next contest as they will play host to Quincy University on Wednesday evening in Hyland Arena. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
