BELMONT, N.C. — The rally Railsplitters were present in North Carolina Saturday.
 
The Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball used a come-from-behind effort to prevail versus Belmont Abbey, winning the final two sets for the 3-2, 20-25, 25-16, 20-25, 26-24, 15-11, victory on the Crusaders' home court.
 
The victory topped off the Railsplitters' 2-0 road trip and extended their winning streak to five straight heading into the regular-season finale Friday at Erskine.
 
Johansen Negron and Evan Cory were on an absolute tear. Negron's stat line included 14 kills on a .345 hitting percentage plus nine digs, three blocks and 15.5 points, while Cory also had 14 kills, a team-tying high 10 digs, six blocks and a team-high 18 points. Pedro Carvalho and Walker had five kills apiece while Carvalho had a team-best nine blocks and Walker had six. Logan Kerley added nine kills and four digs, and AJ Risavy led the way with his 43 assists plus five digs, three blocks and a service ace. Walker and Cory also had an ace.
 
Belmont Abbey (10-9) was carried by Liam Maxwell and his 28 kills, 29.5 points and 11 digs, but his 14 attack errors really hurt the Crusaders. Jake Somers and Andrew Kohut each had seven attack errors apiece while Somers had 13 kills and Kohut had 12 more. Somers also added eight digs and Kohut had 10 as Brennan Davis had eight more and his 55 assists.
                                                                                               
It wasn't the ideal start for the Railsplitters (15-7). Belmont Abbey raced out to a 2-7 lead and held the advantage the rest of the way with the help of eight LMU attack errors and a poor .032 hitting percentage. However, LMU answered three times, coming within two points to threat the Crusaders' lead. The first surge was thanks to a 4-0 run — via an attack error, a pair of Negron kills and one from Walley — to come within the two runs, but each time Belmont Abbey responded. The home squad did for the final time with a 3-0 spurt to cap off their .323 hitting clip for a 1-0 match lead.
 
The second set was more like it for LMU. The Railsplitters upped their hitting percentage to a sizzling .464 while the Crusaders took on the shaky hitting clip -.045. It was back-and-forth for the first 12 points until LMU used a 9-2 run — started and ended by a Belmont Abbey error — to jump ahead on the home team, 15-8, and force a timeout. The Crusaders never got closer than those seven points as LMU kept it going to even the match at 1.
 
In the third set, the Railsplitters were set back again. Belmont Abbey bounced back from its lowest-scored set (16) with its second set win of the day as the Crusaders used a blistering .515 hitting percentage paired with 21 kills to overpower the Railsplitters' .364 clip and 10 kills. LMU used a pair of three-point runs to come with a couple points, and even one, but Belmont Abbey continued to build back onto its lead for the eventual set three victory and 2-1 match lead.
 
That third set victory was all she wrote for the Crusaders. LMU trailed early but battled back to knot the score via kills from Negron, Cory and Kerley. From there, the Railsplitters swapped points before four straight Belmont Abbey errors led LMU to victory and force a winner-take-all set five.
 
The miscues hurt the Crusaders again as they had eight more in the fifth set. The Railsplitters capitalized on those and Belmont Abbey's second negative hitting set to pull away with the come-from-behind match victory.