BRISTOL, Tenn. – After the first two games of the inaugural 2017 campaign were snowed out, the Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball team is set to make its debut on Tuesday night when the Railsplitters head to Bristol, Tenn. to face the King Tornado at 7 p.m.
Schedule/Gameday Links
Tuesday, January 10 at King (7pm) –
Live Stats/
Video
Notes on the Railsplitters:
-The Railsplitters were scheduled to open the 2017 season this past weekend with road matches at North Greenville and Emmanuel, but inclement winter weather forced those two contests to be postponed. A make-up date has not been set for either of those matches, but Lincoln Memorial will try to find a date to reschedule those in the future.
-Following Tuesday's trip to Bristol, Lincoln Memorial heads to Banner Elk, N.C. to face Lees-McRae on Friday before making its Mary Mars Gym debut on Saturday at 1 pm. against Alderson Broaddus. That will be the first of 14 home matches for the Railsplitters this season.
-For a first-year program, the Railsplitters have quite a bit of size in 6-8 middle hitter
Marcus Molina (Newport Beach, Calif.) and 6-7 middle
Pedro Carvalho (Sao Paulo, Brazil). In addition to that duo, Lincoln Memorial has a pair of 6-4 attackers in
Joshua Riblett (Torrence, Calif.) and
Evan Cory (Metairie, La.).
-Lincoln Memorial is being led into its inaugural season by first-year head coach
Dan Danis. Danis was hired as the first LMU men's volleyball coach following a three-year stint as the coach for the K2 16 Elite club team in Knoxville, who was ranked fifth out of 2,200 club teams in the nation at the time of Danis' appointment.
-Lincoln Memorial is one of 21 Division II institutions with a men's volleyball program. NCAA Division I and II programs all compete for the same national championship in men's volleyball.
Notes on the Tornado:
-Like Lincoln Memorial, Tuesday's match will be the 2017 season opener for the Tornado. King will be looking to rebound from a trying 2016 campaign during which the Tornado posted an 8-24 record and finished second-to-last in the Conference Carolinas standings with a 5-13 league mark.
-The Tornado return four of their top-five attackers off of last season's team in Jeff Sprayberry, Sean Luhmann, Jon Wheaton and Adrian Besson. Sprayberry led King by a substantial margin in total kills (420) and kills per set (3.65), while Luhmann put up 247 total kills and 2.33 per set. Wheaton (1.75 per set, 192 total) and Besson (1.05 per set, 116 total) were also productive.
-In addition to that, the Tornado return junior setter Nick Drooker, who ranked 29th nationally last season with 8.86 assists per set. He was also among the national leaders in aces per set, ranking sixth in the country in that department with 0.47. Drooker also led King in digs (232) and digs per set (2.02).
-The Tornado should also get a boost from the return of senior Eddie Moushikhian, who redshirted the 2016 campaign. In 2015, Moushikhian was an All-Conference Carolinas second team selection that ranked sixth in the league with 324 kills and 3.45 per set.
-King is 89-118 all-time since the program was established prior to the 2009 season. The Tornado have finished above .500 just once since 2012, posting a 15-13 record in 2015.
