HARROGATE, Tenn. – Four players finished with double-figure kills as the Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball team (6-9) outlasted the Emmanuel Lions (4-11) in five sets at Mary Mars Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. The Railsplitters won by scores of 25-22, 20-25, 25-16, 23-25 and 15-13 to extend their program-best winning streak to three games and improve to 5-1 on their home court.
Joshua Riblett (Torrence, Calif.) led the Railsplitters with 13 kills to go along with 11 digs and four blocks, while
Pedro Carvalho (Sao Paulo, Brazil),
Evan Cory (Metairie, La.) and
Marcus Molina (Newport Beach, Calif.) had 10 kills apiece. Carvalho and Molina hit .353 and .350, respectively, to help Lincoln Memorial produce a .262 attack percentage as a unit.
Nico Triana (Miami, Fla.) lifted the Railsplitters off the bench with a career-high seven kills.
Ryan Iskandar (Tempe, Ariz.) finished with 43 assists and eight digs, while
Jorge Collazo (San Juan, Puerto Rico) tallied a match-high 12 digs.
Emmanuel out-attacked the Railsplitters 59-54 and finished with a sizzling .273 attack percentage, but Lincoln Memorial took care of business when it mattered the most, notching 11 kills on a .444 clip in the decisive fifth frame. It marked LMU's fourth five-set win of the inaugural season.
Emmanuel's Max Nua led all players with 17 kills, while Manuel Melenciano had 14 kills and nine digs with a .393 attack percentage. Ackeem West posted 10 kills on just 18 attempts for a .444 mark, while Don Thompson had nine kills on only 14 attempts for a .429 hitting percentage. Caleb Bonaventure and Demitrius Maloney combined for 49 assists, while Nua led the Lions in digs with 11.
The Railsplitters were leading 13-11 in the opening set following a service error by West, but the Lions reeled off five unanswered points to take a 16-13 lead. LMU had three attack errors over that stretch. Emmanuel maintained a slight edge at 20-17 later in the set, but the Railsplitters won seven of the next eight rallies, capped by a block from Carvalho, to catapult ahead 24-21. An Emmanuel attack error ended the set in LMU's favor.
The second set was all square at 9-9 following another block from Carvalho and Cory, but the Lions won three of the next four rallies to gain some separation. The Railsplitters later fought back and tied the set at 15-15 on an Emmanuel miscue before the Lions scored five straight points on three kills to build a 20-15 lead. The Railsplitters couldn't rally back this time around, as Nua finished off the 25-20 win for the Lions with a kill.
The Railsplitters came back with a vengeance in the third frame, racing out to a 12-6 lead following an ace from Riblett. Emmanuel used a 7-3 run to close the gap to 15-13 at the midway point, but LMU countered with a 4-0 run to make it 19-13 and force the Lions to burn a timeout. The Railsplitters would end the set on a 6-2 spurt to win it 25-16. Lincoln Memorial hit .370 in the set with 13 kills and just three errors.
Neither team led by more than two points in the fourth set until Emmanuel used a 3-0 run to take an 18-15 lead on a kill by West. The Railsplitters cut the deficit to two points on three occasions over the next passage of play, but back-to-back kills from Melenciano and Maloney made it 23-19 in favor of the visitors. After that, Lincoln Memorial won four of the next five rallies to pull within one at 24-23, but a kill from Nua sent the match to a decisive fifth set.
It looked bleak early for the Railsplitters in the fifth set, as the Lions jumped out to a 5-1 lead. However, Lincoln Memorial used three straight kills and a block by Carvalho to tie it up at 5-5. Neither team led by more than one point over the next passage of play, but an Emmanuel service error followed by a kill from Riblett put the Railsplitters on the verge of victory with a 14-12 lead. The Lions made it 14-13 on the next rally with an LMU error, but Riblett clinched the match with his 13th kill.
The Railsplitters will be back in action on Sunday at 1 p.m. when they welcome the Mount Olive Trojans to Mary Mars Gymnasium.
