LINDENWOOD ADVANCES TO TITLE MATCH
4/21/2006 7:00:00 AM | General
Box Score
The Lions had 5 hitters reach double digits in kills, and were led by 20 by Ryan Nicklas on just 34 swings.
Lindenwood, which is looking for its first tournament title, posted 16 blocks as a team to earn the win and improve to 3-0 in the tournament, 36-3 overall. The Lions will take on the winner of tonight's semifinal match between No. 2-seeded California Baptist and No. 6-seed Newman tomorrow night at
Should California Baptist win, then it will be a rematch of the 2005 title game won by the Lancers on the Lions' home floor.
“It feels amazing,” said Nicklas. “Cal Baptist absolutely worked us last year, but we feel we are better this year than we were last year. We're hoping to make a better showing than we did no matter who we play. We have some unfinished business that we need to take care of tomorrow.”
Missouri Valley (1-2) survived 5 match points in the fifth game, but the Vikings see their season end with a 20-9 mark. They knocked off Park in pool play earlier in the day for its only win in the tournament.
It looked like Lindenwood finally had the match in hand at 10-8 in the final game, but
Nicklas, who notched 4 kills in the finale, connected on a Josh Young set to nail down a kill and put the Lions up 15-14 after the Vikings had spoiled the game's first match point. He had another kill to make the game 16-15, but
After a kill by Justen made the score 17-17, Lindenwood's Joe Deimeke nailed a kill and then served the game-winner when Justen's attack grazed the attena.
Jared Krienkamp and Devin Shiroma had 18 and 15 kills, respectively, while Kevin McLear and Deimeke had 11 and 12 to round out the top-scorers for the Lions.
Justen, who had 8 kills in the second game alone, wasn't stranded by himself either, getting double-digit scoring help from 3 of his teammates, including Jankovic's 14. Adam Tuifagu had 13 kills while Velimirovic posted 10.
Stefanovic had 69 set-assists for the Vikings, while Young dished out 57 scores for the Lions.
