Lincoln College Men's Volleyball Ends Season with Split at CSC Invite

[April 02, 2019] 

The Lincoln College Men’s Volleyball team played their final matches of 2019 on Saturday at the Culver-Stockton College Invite. Lincoln won their first match over the host school in four sets then fell to Missouri Valley College, also in four sets.

The first match of the event was the final home match of the season for Culver-Stockton and a rowdy crowd showed up to cheer their team on. The energy in the gym worked in CSC’s favor in set one as they built an early lead then held off a late rally by the Lynx to win 25-23.

In set two, Lincoln College regrouped and got off to a strong start. LC built a 10-5 lead behind aggressive serving and stingy defense which helped the Lynx cruise to a 25-17 win to even the match.
 

Set three ended with a similar result, but this time the Lynx had to overcome a 12-9 deficit mid-way through. LC was able to take advantage of a Culver-Stockton service error to go on a 5-0 run which put them back in command. Lincoln would go on to win the set 25-18.

CSC came out in set four determined to extend the match. Culver-Stockton went on a 5-1 run to put Lincoln on the defensive. The Lynx would trail throughout most of the set, and were down 17-10 at one point, but Lincoln was able to hold off Culver on several long rallies and managed to turn the tide in their favor. LC would tie the score at 20-20 and eventually pushed ahead to win the set 25-22 to end the match.

Lincoln coach Mark Tippett was pleased with the way his players handled the pressure of playing under difficult circumstances. “Culver brought a lot of energy to the court today and their fans were really giving it to us in the early going,” said Tippett. “I was proud of the way our players responded and rallied around each other to get back in control of the match. It was a very exciting win.”

The final match of the day for Lincoln was against Missouri Valley College. MVC got off to a very strong start in both of the first two sets to win them 25-17 and 25-22. LC responded with a much better effort in set three to take it 25-17 and were very close to forcing a deciding set to fifteen, but came up just short in set four, losing it 25-23.

“It would have been interesting to see us go to a fifth set against MVC,” said Tippett. “We were pretty drained after the Culver match, and it took us until the third set to start playing with confidence, but I was again proud of the way we finished and the way we competed right up to the end.”

LC sophomore Ramon Matos (Chicago) led the Lynx offense with 32 kills on the day. Charles Carter (Blue Island) had 19 kills and Deantrius Coleman (North Chicago) recorded 13. Setter Nick Washington (St. Louis, MO) led the way with 52 total set assists while fellow setter Brian Orellana (Chicago) was good for 43. Libero Trenton Kielion (Princeville) led the defensive effort for LC with 32 total digs.

The matches at CSC were the last of the season for Lincoln as the team is not post-season eligible due to this being their first year as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Lincoln finishes their season with a final record of 15-9.

[Mark Tippett
Lincoln College
Sports Information]