THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – California Lutheran's Patrick Rowe tallied 17 kills and the men's volleyball team put up a tough fight, but the No. 7 Benedictine Eagles came away with the 3-1 (15-25, 25-23, 23-25, 23-25) win Thursday night in Gilbert Arena.
With the 17 kills, Rowe became the program leader for kills in a career. So far in his two seasons, he has compiled 402 kills. He had a hitting percentage of .387.
CLU's Justin Dietrich and Andrew Reina were next with 11 kills apiece. Dietrich swatted down his 11 with a .500 clip. Mason Mercer was just shy of double-digit kills as he recorded nine. Grant Nelson kept the ball moving and dished out 46 assists.
Defensively, libero Alec Bennett led the Kingsmen in digs with 10. Reina chipped in eight and Rowe had six more. Michael Campbell was all around the net and tallied four block assists. Nick Christy, Mercer and Reina each had two more.
In the first game, the score went back and forth at the beginning. Benedictine was up 5-4 and then went on a 5-0 run and had a 10-4 lead. A little bit later, BU went on a 7-0 run and had a 19-8 lead. The Eagles would win the first game 25-15.
Benedictine opened the second game with a 3-0 run. The Kingsmen answered quickly with a 4-0 run of its own. Rowe hit back-to-back kills and Campbell and Brendan Ward combined for a block. The score would eventually be tied up at 13. The score would be tied six more times before it was tied at 23. Rowe then swatted down a kill to put the Kingsmen up. Mercer won the game for Cal Lutheran as he served an ace for the win.
The third game would be just as tight as the second. Whenever a team made a run, the other would answer. The score remained tied later on, but BU was able to pull out the game with a score of 25-23.
The Kingsmen opened the fourth set on a 5-0 run. Mercer swatted down three kills to start the game A little bit later, Rowe connected on back-to-back kills and Reina added one more. CLU went up 7-3. The Eagles would continue to grind and the lead would disappear. It eventually was all tied up at 14. With BU up 19-17, Rowe and Reina tallied kills and the game was tied at 19. CLU put up a fight all the way till the end, but BU won the game 25-23 and the match 3-1.
Cal Lutheran will hit the road again for its next set of games. The Kingsmen take on Emmanuel in Boston.
Results: BU 3, CLU 1
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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director
