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 Lincoln ran the table on day one, going 5-0 to win both their
morning pool and the evening super-pool matches. The Lynx began
their run to the No. 1 seed in bracket play with wins over SIU-E
(25-29, 25-16), U of Chicago (25-14, 25-17), and Kansas (25-15,
25-19). In super-pool play, LC matched up against two other
undefeated teams (SLU and Missouri S&T). Lincoln defeated St. Louis
University 25-20, 25-21 then avenged an early season loss to
nationally ranked Missouri S&T (#7) in an epic three set battle. S&T
took set one 22-25, but the Lynx roared back to take sets two and
three 25-20 and 15-7.
In bracket play on Sunday, Lincoln advanced to the championship
match by winning two hard-fought matches against Creighton (25-21,
23-25, 15-11) and Nebraska (26-24, 18-25, 15-13). In the
championship match, Lincoln again faced off against Missouri S&T.
And, just like in their other two meetings this season, the teams
split their first two sets. S&T took set one 22-25 and LC responded
with a 25-23 win in set two. In the deciding set to 15, the teams
fought back and forth to an 11-11 tie before S&T managed to pull
away for a narrow 15-12 victory.
LC Coach Mark Tippett; We are very proud to come away with second
place in the MWPVC in only our first year of competition. There were
no easy wins for us once we got out of the first round of pool play,
but our guys showed an incredible amount of mental toughness and
stuck together when times got tough. Our wins over SLU and Missouri
S&T on Saturday night were very intense matches.
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We are the only team in the Conference to have defeated S&T this
year. They have a big team with lots of experience on their side,
but our group of freshman gave them a great battle in the final that
really could have gone either way. Our guys played their hearts out
in a loss to a worthy opponent, so we left with no regrets. I am
very pleased that we ended up with a record of 26-12 (16-2 in
Conference), which is much better than I think anyone could have
expected from a first year program. Each of our players should be
proud of what they accomplished and congratulated on how well they
represented Lincoln College. Coach Faith and I had a blast working
with this group, and we are already looking forward to next season!
LC Stat totals:
Adam Krzos 59 kills, 51 points, 6 aces
Wes Higgenbotham 59 kills, 6 points 27 blocks
Lukasz Kupiec 180 set assists, 22 points, 12 blocks
Alex Robles 30 kills, 8 blocks
Alec Esparza 45 digs, 29 points, 6 aces
Manny Benitez 35 kills, 16 blocks
Zach DeLoach 16 kills, 8 blocks
Josue Ramirez 10 points, 6 digs
Michael Wesley 10 kills, 4 blocks
Brandon Anderson 23 points, 7 digs
Paul Gardner 3 kills
[Coach Mark Tipplett]
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