BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The King Tornado (1-0) hit .275 as a team to spoil the debut of the Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball program with a 3-0 win over the Railsplitters (0-1) on Tuesday night in Bristol, Tenn.
 
The Railsplitters hit .160 as a team and were outhit 35-31 in the contest. Service errors also proved to be a problem for Lincoln Memorial, as the Railsplitters committed 14 serving miscues.
 
Evan Cory (Metairie, La.) led Lincoln Memorial with eight kills on a team-high 22 attempts to go along with three digs and two blocks. Ryan Iskandar (Tempe, Ariz.) and Pedro Carvalho (Sao Paulo, Brazil) had six kills apiece, while Iskander also added a team-high 23 assists and three digs. Joshua Riblett (Torrence, Calif.) contributed five kills and four digs, while Jorge Collazo (San Juan, Puerto Rico) led the way with nine digs.
 
The Tornado were led by Jeff Sprayberry, who piled up a match-high 11 kills on a .320 attack percentage. Sean Luhmann posted nine kills on just 16 attempts for a gaudy .562 attack percentage, while Eddie Moushikhian notched six kills and seven digs. Nick Drooker led all players with 27 assists and three service aces while matching a team-high mark with seven digs.
 
King was all over the Railsplitters early in the first set, using five LMU attack errors to establish an 11-3 lead. However, Lincoln Memorial battled back and closed the gap to 15-11 later in the frame on back-to-back Tornado miscues. King responded from that by scoring three unanswered points, but the Railsplitters later fought back to trim the deficit to 21-17 on another Tornado attack error. That was as close as the Railsplitters would get, though, as a kill from Sprayberry clinched the 25-20 King victory.
 
The Tornado led from start to finish again in set two, pulling ahead 10-4 on back-to-back LMU attack errors. The set never completely got away from Lincoln Memorial, though, as a 5-2 run capped by a Cory kill cut King's lead to 18-15. The Tornado pushed back out to a 20-15 lead, but the Railsplitters answered with a 5-1 run, making it 21-20 on a King service error. However, the Tornado ended the set on a 4-1 run to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Railsplitters were in contention early in the third set and trailed just 7-5 after a King service miscue. However, the Tornado went on a 9-2 run to establish a commanding 16-7 lead. Lincoln Memorial was unable to recover from that, as the Tornado won seven of the last eight rallies to complete the straight-set sweep.
 
The Railsplitters return to action on Friday, January 13, when they head to Banner Elk, N.C. to face the Lees-McRae Bobcats at 7 p.m.