FORT WAYNE, IN. - The Lindenwood Men's Volleyball team (9-1, 3-0 MIVA) defeated Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday night in three sets by scores of 25-20, 25-23, and 25-20. Brendan Louthain and Caden Whiteside each had 10 kills in the match to lead the Lions offensively. 

The first set was back and forth the entire way with both teams making runs early on. Luke Kraft picked up a service ace to cap off a 7-3 opening run by the Lions, but Purdue Fort Wayne responded by going on a 5-0 run to take an 8-7 lead. The two squads went back and forth the remainder of the set as the Mastodons held on to a 20-18 lead late. Brendan Louthain picked up a kill and a block assist to tie the set at 20, and Caden Whiteside recorded a kill and a service ace en route to Lindenwood closing out the first set on a 7-0 run to take the opening set 25-20. 

In set two, the Lions once again trailed late but continued to fight. With Lindenwood down 16-12, Louthain sparked another run with a kill followed by a Luke Kraft kill and service ace to give LU a 17-16 lead in the middle of the set. Whiteside picked up two big kills late as the Lions went up two sets to none after three service errors were committed by Purdue Fort Wayne and Amir Grant had a kill to give Lindenwood the 25-23 set two victory. In the third set, Zach Solomon added a service ace to give the Lions an 11-10 lead, and Lindenwood would never trail again as the Solomon ace started a 5-2 run behind kills from Whiteside and Louthain to put LU in front 15-12. Grant and Whiteside added two more kills to their total for the match later in the set as Lindenwood went on to take the third and final set by a score of 25-20 to complete the sweep over Purdue Fort Wayne and improve to 3-0 in the MIVA. 

After hitting .150 in the opening set, Lindenwood hit .258 in set two and .591 in set three to finish the match with a hitting percentage of .329. The Lions also added six service aces during the match with two each coming from Zach Solomon, Luke Kraft, and Caden Whiteside. Defensively, Owen Walsh led the way with three blocks and was followed by Brendan Louthain with two and Luke Kraft who had one. 

Lindenwood will wrap up their first MIVA road trip of the season tomorrow night at #9 Ball State. First serve is set for 5 p.m. CT and will be streamed on ESPN+.