St. Louis, MO - The Lincoln Memorial men's volleyball team advances to the IVA Championships as they defeat the Rockhurst University Hawks Saturday morning 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-20).

The first set was the most battled set of the whole match, as there was a match-high 7 ties and 4 lead changes throughout the set. Even with that, LMU took the win for set one 25-23. In the second set, the Railsplitters recorded a match-high 16 kills with only 3 errors and posted their highest attack percentage of the morning, .382. As a result of that, LMU took the set two win 25-23. The third set had the highest win margin of the match, as a 6-2 LMU run gave them the win for set three 25-20, giving Lincoln Memorial the match sweep 3-0. 

Johan Negron tallied double-digit kills on the morning as he posted a match-high 12 kills for a .286 attack percentage. Griffin Wheatley led the team in service aces with 2, and John Luers was the team-leader in assists with 33. Defensively, Eliel Salva Torres led in blocks with 1 solo block and 5 block assists, and Tate Colebaugh led in digs with 11. 

As a team, Lincoln Memorial posted a .054 attack percentage in the first, .382 in the second, and .303 in the third for a match attack percentage of .240. The Railsplitters also tallied 52.5 points, 40 kills, 3 aces, 9 blocks, 35 assists, and 43 digs. 

With the win, LMU improves to 23-1 on the season. Also with today's 23rd win of the season, the 2025 LMU men's volleyball team broke the program record for number of wins in the season. The previous record was 22 wins in the 2023 season. 

The Railsplitters will compete for the championship title as they play in the IVA Chammpionship match today at 5 pm, with the opponent to be determined.