THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Cal Lutheran men's volleyball defeated Lasell in a five-set thriller as the Kingsmen capped off the Cal-Lu-fornia Classic on Saturday night. They fell to No. 3 Juniata earlier in the day. The scores of the matches were 20-25, 21-25, 19-25 against Juniata and 16-25, 25-15, 21-25, 30-28, 15-13 versus Lasell.
In the second match of the day, the first two sets were blowouts with each team taking one. Lasell won the first and the Kingsmen fired back to win the second. Down 4-2 in the third, the Kingsmen scored four straight points to take the lead. Taylor Marks and Ben Weber recorded kills during the run. The teams exchanged points, with Lasell scoring a few more, and the Kingsmen took a timeout with the score tied at 17. A few plays later, Lasell used a six-point run to end the third set and took a 2-1 match lead.
Cal Lutheran came out strong in the fourth set and looked to tie the match. Up 8-6, the Kingsmen scored four of the next six points and had a four-point lead. Lasell clawed their way back and the score was eventually tied at 21. It continued to be tied until 28.The Kingsmen forced a fifth set as Marks recorded a kill and Jake Tucker and Borys Horiuk combined for a block.
The Kingsmen opened the fifth set with a 4-1 advantage. Laselle came back, just like they did in the fourth and the set was tied at 6-6. With the Kingsmen up 7-6, Sean Fitzpatrick came in and served back-to-back aces to give his team breathing room. Cal Lutheran kept getting closer to an electric win as Marks and Noah Rigo combined for a block to put their team up 12-9. The Kingsmen pulled off an epic win as Laselle committed an error on the final play.
Weber led the way with 20 kills, Marks was next with 16 and Jake Tucker had 14. Weber added 13 digs for a double-double. T. Marks hit with a .462 percentage and added 13 assists for a double-double. Jacob Cudiamat made it three double-doubles with 44 assists and 10 digs. Fitzpatrick had two aces and Horiuk had five total blocks.
In the first match of the day, the Kingsmen faced a formidable opponent in the Eagles of Juniata. The No. 3 team in the country had an answer for everything the Kingsmen did.
It was a game of runs for the Eagles. With the game tied at 6, Juniata scored six straight and took the lead. They never looked back and went up 1-0 in the match. In the second set, the run happened in almost the same way. Up 7-6, the Eagles scored another six straight points. The used the breathing room to take a two-set lead. Little runs in the third set allowed Juniata to create some distance with the Kingsmen as the match ended in three.
Weber had the most kills with 10 and was followed by Connor Crawford with seven. Marks kept the offense moving with 20 assists and added four kills. Weber had the most digs with six and Horiuk had one block.
The Kingsmen are 18-8 overall and continue their season on Monday at home. Cal Lutheran hosts Nazareth at 2 p.m.
CLU Instagram: CLUSports
Sport IG: clumensvolleyball
CLU Twitter: CLUSports
Sport Twitter: CLUmVolleyball
CLU Facebook: CLUSports
Hashtags: #clusports #ownthethrone #goregals #gokingsmen #theSCIAC #ncaad3
