ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Lindenwood Men's Volleyball team (19-6, 10-5 MIVA) snapped their two match losing skid on Thursday night with a 3-0 sweep over Northern Kentucky at home. With the victory tonight, the Lions have tied the NCAA Era record for the most wins in a single season with 19. In his return to the starting lineup for the first time since March 13, Brendan Louthain made his presence known as he recorded a match-high 11 kills and hit a team-high .529 to lead the Lions to the season sweep over the Norse. 

NKU started off the match with a 4-1 lead behind two straight blocks to start the set, but Lindenwood rallied with a quick 3-0 run to even the set at four behind a service ace from Nick Dvorak and a solo block from Amir Grant. The two sides would go back-and-forth for a while before the Lions used a 9-2 run to seize control of the first set. During the run, Matt Muehlnickel had his first career service ace in his first career start to even the set at 13, and Louthain added two more service aces plus two kills during the run to put the Lions in front 20-15. Muehlnickel and Grant ended the set with back-to-back kills to put Lindenwood at 24, and Grant and Zach Solomon teamed up for a block to take set one by a final score of 25-21. The second set was all LU as they started out the set on a 6-2 run behind one kill and one service ace from Caden Whiteside, and later in the set Louthain picked up two more service aces as the Lions grabbed a 12-7 lead halfway through the set. Louthain, Muehlnickel, and Whiteside each had kills later in the set behind a 5-0 Lindenwood run to make the set 23-11 in favor of the Lions who would go on to take the two set lead by taking the second set in dominating fashion by a score of 25-13. 

In the last set, Lindenwood again jumped out to a big lead by a score of 9-4, but a 3-1 lead later in the set by the Norse cut the deficit to two at 12-10. After both teams traded points for ahwile and the Lions held on to an 18-16 lead, Nick Dvorak and Matt Muehlnickel recorded back-to-back kills that sparked a quick 3-0 run to put the Lions ahead by five late in the set by a score of 21-16. Muehlnickel and Whiteside combined for three late kills as the Lions would go on to complete the sweep over NKU by taking the final set by a score of 25-20. 

As a team, the Lions hit .311 and added 12 service aces with Brendan Louthain leading the way with a match-high five aces. Muehlnickel had seven kills in his first start of his collegiate career and also added six digs and two service aces, while Nick Dvorak had three kills and three service aces. Zach Solomon recorded a match-high eight digs and a match-high 28 assists, with Amir Grant leading the Lions in blocks with four defensively. 

Lindenwood will wrap up their final regular season match on Saturday afternoon when they welcome in #17 Ohio State. First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT.