HARROGATE, Tenn. — It was a slow start but a hot finish.
 
After the Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball team dropped the first set to visiting Belmont Abbey, the Railsplitters ripped off three consecutive wins to take the 3-1 match victory, 20-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-20, inside Mary Mars Gym Saturday afternoon.
 
"I think they were a little bit surprised the way Belmont attacked them, even though we talked about that before the game," LMU head coach John Cash said. "We said, 'Hey, they are going to have some vinegar about them. Don't think they just played a five setter and they aren't going to come out after you.' They did and blocked really well. That first set, they had six blocks on us and that's unusual to have that many against us in a set. We probably had as many errors in the first set as we did the whole match.
 
"Our goal is always to hit over .300, and we feel like if we are hitting over .300 and getting around 12 to 15 kills and three to four blocks — our aces always find a way to help us out too — we should be in an advantage mode. We struggled a little bit with that today."
 
Led by Evan Cory and Danny Hermida, who had 15 and 14 kills apiece respectively, along with AJ Risavy's 33 assists, the Railsplitters (2-0) bounced back from a .148-hitting percentage in the first set.
 
The second set was close until it wasn't. The Railsplitters inched up to the Crusaders before passing them on a 5-0 run, which forced a Belmont Abbey timeout. The brief break didn't slow down LMU as kills from Cory and Hermida continued a 17-7 run to snag set two and even the match.
 
LMU took the second-set momentum and powered it into the third. The Railsplitters got off to a quick start, rattling off three points but the Crusaders answered with seven straight to force a timeout. It wasn't long before LMU took the swing back, powering off a 7-1 run to take the lead for good. Freshman Dawson Walker's block secured the win and 2-1 match advantage.
 
The Railsplitters, who finished with a .276 hitting percentage to the Crusaders' .185, capped off three consecutive set wins with a 7-1 surge that Cory solidified with his 15th kill to pair with six service aces.

"Our serve receive was fantastic all day long," Cash said. "Ninety-two percent is our goal and we were at 91.7 so we were right there. Some little defensive plays here and there where last night we were a little more engaged were we needed to be. It was maybe a step too far or too far back or our hands weren't quite where we needed to be placed for the block.
 
"Still, I liked the gritty performance of the guys because it takes some fortitude when you really get your butt kicked in that first set, and then turn around and come back and play great side-out ball and back-and-forth ball, and then when we had our chances to get runs we took advantage of it and some timely serving so that was good."

Up Next
The Railsplitters will end their three-game homestand at 1 p.m. Sunday versus Mount Olive back inside Mary Mars Gym.