ANNVILLE, Pa. – Lebanon Valley sophomore Libby Lindau had a career-high 15 kills against Messiah University as the Volleyball team split a Saturday tri-match against the Falcons and Cheyney University at Sorrentino Gymnasium. LVC dropped a close 3-1 battle with Messiah before dominating the Wolves 3-0.
 
Game One vs. Messiah
The scores of the first two sets were 25-20 with the Dutchmen taking the first set and the Falcons winning the second. The final two sets were very close throughout with Messiah edging LVC 25-23 and 31-29 in each set.
 
The first set was a battle between the former conference rivals as Messiah held a slight 6-4 edge after the first 10 points of the match. Lindau had her first two kills of the match to tie things up. The Falcons used a small 5-2 run to build a three-point advantage and LVC responded with a big 6-1 rally to take a 14-12 lead. The Dutchmen were able to increase the lead to four points at 21-17 after a big block assist by Teaguen Reynolds and Jillian Jefferys and then a service ace by Mattea Penner. The Falcons called timeout to regroup and scored the first three points out of the stoppage to get within one. A service error stopped the run and then Reynolds served up three consecutive aces to close out the set.
 
The Dutchmen carried the momentum into the second set as they got out to a 5-3 lead. Messiah tied the set up with before Lindau added two more kills. LVC used a 5-2 run to build their largest lead of the set at 13-9 but Messiah countered by winning six of the next seven points to go up by one. The Falcons continued the run and went up by three. LVC came right back as Jefferys blocked an attack, Jasmine Sullivan had an ace, and then Jefferys tied the set at 18 on a kill from Abigail Souder. The set was tied at 19 when Messiah won six of the final seven points to tie the match up at one.
 
The Falcons jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the third set. Sullivan brought the Dutchmen right back into the set and gave them the lead with four consecutive service aces. The teams battled back and forth until Messiah used a 4-0 run to take a 17-13 advantage. They were able to get the lead up to six at 21-15 before LVC made a late run with Lindau having three kills during the stretch to cut it down to one point at 23-22. Messiah won two of the next three points to take the set.
 
The fourth set was a battle the whole way through with the teams trading blows. Messiah went up 5-3 and then LVC used a big run to go up 11-7. Messiah came right back to tie the set up at 15. The teams traded three-point runs until It was all tied at 21. The Falcons scored the next two points and the Dutchmen responded by winning the next three to get to set point. Messiah won the next two points. The Falcons had match point three times with LVC coming up with a big kill each time to extend the set. The Dutchmen were not able to starve off a fourth match point and Messiah took the set 31-29.
 
Inside the Box

• Lindau finished with a career-high 15 kills on 24 attacks. Her .417 hitting percentage was her fourth-best this season.
• Penner had 13 kills and two aces.
• Sullivan had a huge day serving the ball with seven aces. She was one ace shy of the program record. The setter also tied her season-high with 25 assists and eight digs.
• Reynolds had four aces while Lyla Arfanella had three. As a team, LVC had 17 aces.
• Souder led the defense with 11 digs while Sofia Okronley added nine digs and 22 assists.
• Taylor McInerney had 13 kills to give her 258 on the season and 1,276 in her career. She is eight kills shy of seventh in the program record books.

Game Two vs. Cheyney
The Dutchmen dominated from the very beginning and quickly defeated the Wolves by scores of 25-10, 25-6, and 25-8. LVC scored the first seven points of the match with Okronley serving. She had two aces while Penner had three kills and a block assist. The Wolves scored three of the next four points and six of 10 points to cut the advantage to 10-6. LVC responded with the next four points and then back-to-back kills by Penner got the lead to 17-8. Souder had a pair of aces to get the Dutchmen to 20 points before LVC closed out the set by winning five of the final six points.
 
The second set began with 10 straight points by the Dutchmen including four service aces and two kills by Penner. Reynolds and Riley Mack also had a pair of kills apiece during the run. Two more kills by Mack and a service ace by Reynolds put the Dutchmen up 13-1. The lead grew to 18-3 following a 5-0 run where Sullivan had an ace and Lindau added two more kills to her total for the day. Arfanella had three aces during her turn serving to get the advantage to 23-4. Penner and Reynolds had a kill each to end the set and give the Dutchmen a 2-0 lead. LVC had an outstanding nine aces during the set.
 
The teams traded points to begin the third set before LVC scored five consecutive points ending on a Kathryn Sansom ace to take a 7-2 lead. The lead grew to 10-3 after another ace by Sullivan. Souder added back-to-back aces to bring the advantage to 16-5. The Dutchmen used a strong offensive attack to limit the Wolves to just three points the rest of the way to sweep the match.
 
Inside the Box

• LVC had a season-high 20 aces. Souder, Penner, and Okronley had four each with Sullivan and Arfaneela added three apiece.
• Penner led the team with 12 kills and a .632 hitting percentage. She also recorded eight digs and two block assists.
• Mack finished with a season-high nine kills on 15 attacks.
• Okronley had 20 assists while Sullivan recorded 11.
• Margaret Cole had two solo blocks.
• Souder had another strong defensive game with 12 digs. She now has double digit digs in 16 matches this year.

Up Next
LVC will host King's College on Wednesday in the team's annual Dig Pink Game at Sorrentino Gymnasium. First serve against the Monarchs is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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