CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball team (9-9) will look to get above .500 on a trip to North Carolina to face two teams the Railsplitters have already beaten in straight sets this season in Queens (4-16) and Belmont Abbey (8-14). Both matches were previously played at Mary Mars Gymnasium. LMU hit .468 to beat Queens 3-0 on February 24 and compiled a then-program record 16 blocks in a 3-0 win over Belmont Abbey on January 20.
 
Queens and Belmont Abbey face each other in Belmont, N.C. on Thursday night.
 
Schedule/Game Day Links:
 
Friday, March 23 at Queens (7 p.m.) – Live Stats / Video
Saturday, March 24 at Belmont Abbey (1 p.m.) – Live Stats / Video
 
Quick Hits:
 
- Lincoln Memorial evened its record and improved to 8-1 at Mary Mars Gymnasium with a 3-0 sweep over Lees-McRae last Friday night. The Railsplitters cruised to set wins of 25-17, 25-17 and 25-15. LMU racked up 37 kills and hit .338. The Railsplitters held advantages in service aces (8-2), blocks (10-6) and digs (25-22).
 
- Evan Cory led the way with 11 kills while hitting .474. Joshua Riblett added nine kills. Pedro Carvalho contributed eight kills, six blocks and two service aces. AJ Risavy collected 31 assists.
 
- Carvalho is the national leader with 1.508 blocks per set and 22 solo blocks. He has totaled 37 blocks and averaged 2.06 per set over his past four matches.
 
- The Railsplitters are second nationally in blocks per set with 2.82. This has helped the team hold opponents to the fifth-lowest hitting percentage at .207.
 
- Cory has recorded a double-digit kill total in 12 of 18 matches and leads the team with 220 kills, 3.38 kills per set (25^th nationally) and 25 service aces. The sophomore from Metairie, Louisiana has led or been tied for the team lead in kills in 16 of 18 matches. His .316 hitting percentage also ranks 30^th nationally.
 
- AJ Risavy is the only other Railsplitter besides Carvalho to start all 18 matches and appear in all 65 sets played. The freshman setter has dished out 559 assists and averages 8.60 per set (27^th nationally).
 
- Lincoln Memorial is 8-1 on the season at Mary Mars Gymnasium and 18-6 all-time. Only two home matches have extended beyond three sets this season. The Railsplitters are 1-8 playing away from Harrogate on the year and 3-20 in the program's brief history.
 
- The team has improved its attack percentage from .201 in its inaugural year to .218. Kills per set are nearly identical at 10.21 to 10.20. Digs per set are down from 8.80 to 7.95. Blocks per set have increased dramatically from 1.98 to 2.82.
 
Notes on Queens:
 
- The Queens men's volleyball team is in its inaugural season.
 
- Queens most recently lost in five sets at home to North Greenville last Friday (25-21, 21-25, 24-26, 25-23, 9-15). Nic Cavallaro notched his first career double-double with 16 kills and 15 digs. Conner Nagaki led all players with a career-high 19 digs. Tristan Santoyo added in 13 digs along with eight kills, and Aleksandar Perisic totaled seven blocks.
 
- The Royals cruised to a 3-0 home win over Bluefield College the night before. Three separate players had at least nine kills, and Queens hit .329 as a team en route to set wins of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-11.
 
- Queens is the national leader with 10.41 digs per set. Nagaki ranks sixth nationally with 2.78 digs per set.
 
- Opponents average over 2.5 more kills per set than the Royals (12.0-9.4) and have an 874-689 edge overall. Opponents have hit .217 to Queens' .146.
 
- The trio of Marco Vecellio (118 kills), Santoyo (112 kills), Jake Dube (102 kills) leads the team offensively.
 
- The Royals have also struggled in the serving category with just 60 aces compared to 153 allowed. Opponents average 2.10 service aces per set while Queens averages 0.82.
 
- Perisic has added 96 kills and ranks fourth nationally with 1.271 blocks per set.
 
- Queens is 2-6 at home and 2-10 on the road.
 
Notes on Belmont Abbey:
 
- The Crusaders have lost six of their past eight matches but won at Lees-McRae in four sets (25-23, 19-25, 25-19, 25-20) in their most recent match on Tuesday.
 
- Liam Maxwell registered 25 kills of Belmont Abbey's 43 kills and hit .388. The Crusaders hit .172 for the match and held Lees-McRae to a .107 mark.
 
- Maxwell has more than twice as many kills as anyone else on the team with 340 and ranks fourth nationally with 4.25 per set. He is second nationally with 10.125 attacks per set. The sophomore was held to a season-worst -.026 attack percentage in the first meeting with LMU.
 
- Belmont Abbey is fifth out of nine teams in Conference Carolinas with a 6-7 record in league play. The team is 2-7 in nonconference matches.
 
- Kills between the Crusaders and opponents are nearly even with Belmont Abbey at a slight disadvantage (912-928). However, opponents are hitting .237 to the Crusaders' .166.
 
- Opponents also hold distinct edges in service aces (144-111) and total blocks (203-131).
 
- Belmont Abbey is 5-5 at home compared to 3-9 on the road.