ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Lindenwood Men's Volleyball team (5-1, 0-0 MIVA) won their fifth straight match on Friday night as they took down Rockhurst University in four sets by scores of 24-26, 25-14, 25-19, and 25-20. Four different Lions recorded 10 or more kills and Luke Kraft led the way with a match-high 15 kills on a .444 hitting percentage. 

The Lions started out with an early 10-2 lead in the first set thanks to two service aces from Zach Solomon and kills from Kraft and Caden Whiteside. Rockhurst responded with a 5-0 run to cut the Lindenwood lead to 10-7 and later in the set the Hawks went on their second big run to take a 16-15 lead that forced an LU timeout. Owen Walsh recorded a block in the later stages of the set to give the Lions a 21-20 lead, but Rockhurst took the opening set 26-24 as they closed the set on a 6-3 run to hand the Lions their first deficit since the opening set of the CSUN match. In the second set, Brendan Louthain recorded three kills early on and both Amir Grant and Owen Walsh added two kills as the Lions took a 13-7 lead. Caden Whiteside picked up another kill a few points later that sparked a 5-0 Lindenwood run to open up a 10 point lead at 18-8 for the Black and Gold. Luke Kraft had two big kills in the later part of the set to help the Lions even the match at one and took the second set by a score of 25-14. 

To start the third set, both teams traded points and runs through the first half of the set as the score remained tied at 13-13. The defense stepped up with the score still tied as Amir Grant had two block assists over a span of three straight points for the Lions to give them some breathing room at 16-13. Grant would extend the Lion lead to five after a service ace to make it 19-14, but the Hawks battled back once more by using a 3-1 run to make it 20-17 late in the third set. Rockhurst would commit back-to-back attack errors to give LU a 22-17 lead, and the Lions took the third set as Luke Kraft and Brendan Louthain each had a kill to close out the third set by a score of 25-19. In the fourth set, Rockhurst opened up a four point lead midway through by a score of 14-10 and were threatening to force a fifth set, but the Lions roared back by going on a 7-1 run to take a 17-15 lead behind two more blocks from Amir Grant and two more kills from Louthain. Luke Kraft helped the Lions secure their fifth straight win as he added two blocks and a kill over the last four points for the Lions who went on to win the fourth and final set by a score of 25-20. 

As a team, Lindenwood hit .378 and Zach Solomon finished with a match-high 47 assists while the defense finished with 10.5 total blocks and were led by Owen Walsh who had a team-high 3.5 total blocks in the victory over the Hawks. The Lions will now return to action tomorrow night as they will host Missouri S&T at 7 p.m.