HARROGATE, Tenn. — The visiting Lions gave the Lincoln Memorial University men's volleyball team and its undefeated home record a scare Wednesday night, but the Railsplitters escaped it.
 
LMU won the first set before Emmanuel took the next two, and then the Railsplitters kicked it into high gear to secure the 3-2 victory, 25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 25-9, 15-12, for their eighth straight victory this season inside Mary Mars Gym.
 
Evan Cory paced the Railsplitters (10-6) with another stellar outing as he matched his season-high 26 kills, while recording his season-high in points (31.5) with a .512 hitting clip. He also had three service aces and five blocks.
 
Redshirt senior Jordan Walley was right behind the junior as he recorded a team-high four aces and season-high 10 digs to pair with his 12 kills, .320 hitting percentage and season-high 16 points. Back in action for the Railsplitters was Pedro Carvalho as he totaled a team-high six blocks behind his seven kills, four digs, three aces, .429 hitting clip and 16 points. AJ Risavy added a team-high 41 assists while freshman Ryan Foy added 14.
 
For Emmanuel (6-13), Don Thompson led his squad with 21 kills, three digs, two service aces and 24.5 points. Aleksa Lakic had 14 kills, four digs and 14 points, while Demitrius Maloney was next with 11 digs and 47 assists.
 
The two teams were nearly identical on the stat line as the Railsplitters held a .378 hitting percentage compared to the Lions' .378, while LMU also held the advantage in kills (61-59), digs (35-33) and blocks (7-4.5).
 
The opening set was the true definition of the game of runs. LMU used the first one with a pair of three-point runs in the first 10 points to take a 10-5 lead, which was featured by a service ace from Carvalho and Dawson Walker. The Lions then scored two at a time followed by three a few points later, coming within a point of the Railsplitters, but they answered with the exact scoring formula to force an Emmanuel timeout up 20-16. The Lions scored the next four of five points; however, it was LMU the next three of five — including two straight — to snag set one.  
 
Emmanuel took the next two sets as the Lions scored the last four of five points to take the back-and-forth set two and even the match. Emmanuel kept the momentum into the third set, hitting a blistering .591 to hold off a come-from-behind attempt from the Railsplitters.
 
LMU turned it up a notch in the fourth and fifth set with its undefeated record at home on the line. The Railsplitters had a little power of their own as they used an 18-3 run in the third set to run away with the impressive, 25-9, victory before securing the fifth set as Logan Kerley put down the match point.