Men's Volleyball Welcomes Lindenwood, McKendree to Conclude Homestand

1/24/2019 11:30:00 AM

Loretto, Pa.- The Saint Francis men's volleyball team (3-2) will close out its home swing with a pair of matches against Lindenwood (1-4) on Friday and McKendree (1-1) on Sunday. Friday's match against Lindenwood will be the annual Sideline Cancer game which will feature t-shirts for sale. All proceeds will go towards cancer research and studies to help sideline cancer.

Weekend Schedule
Friday, January 25
Lindenwood- 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, January 26
McKendree- 1:00 p.m.

About the Lions
The Lions are off to an 1-4 start, falling to USC and No. 15 Grand Canyon last weekend. The matchup Friday will be the second meeting between both programs as the Lions edged the Red Flash in straight sets a season ago. Trying to improve upon a 9-16 season in 2018, the Lions returns a few key players, All-Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Setter Adam Brewster and 2019 preseason All-MIVA honoree Connor Hipelius. Brewster was one of the top setters in the NCAA last season averaging 9.78 assists per set thanks to a 63-assist performance against Princeton. Hipelius was the Lion's top hitter last year, notching 1.96 kills per set with a .387 hitting percentage. Defensively, Hipelius was second in the MIVA and eighth nationally with 1.16 blocks per set.

So far this season, redshirt sophomore Charley Hlavin leads the offensive attack with 53 kills on a .244 hitting percentage. Hipelius follows shortly behind with 44 kills on a .597 hitting percentage as Brewster currently sits sixth in the MIVA dishing out 183 assists. On the defensive side, Hipelius leads the team with 15 blocks while redshirt junior Ben Symonds totals 33 digs on the young season.

About the Bearcats
McKendree comes into Loretto with a 1-1 overall record, splitting its only two matches of the season against No. 7 UCLA and Charleston. The Bearcats are looking to mobilize momentum coming into this weekend, after losing one of its current members, Kirk Jackson, this past weekend. Jackson experienced a 11-win season last year, as the Bearcats will be motivated to improve on that record this season. Senior libero Zach Thompson, and sophomore middle blocker Wyatt Dimke are the key returners and current record holders for the program. Thompson is a program record holder in total digs with 637 while Dimke sits fifth in the record books with a career kill percentage of .303.

Redshirt freshman outside hitter Brendon Dunn completed his first weekend with 18 kills on a .204 hitting percentage. Sophomore outside hitter Patrick Ross and junior setter Zach Schnittker both finished with 16 kills while averaging 2.29 kills per set. Redshirt freshman Ryan Serrano dished out a team-leading 63 assists while also leading the defense with 12 digs. Dimke has contributed on both offense and defense with 15 kills on a .458 hitting percentage and 10 blocks on a 1.43 blocks per set.

About the Red Flash
In a weekend that featured a few schedule changes due to the weather, the Red Flash finished 0-2 but developed some positive pointers from each game. SFU not only indicated it could hang with two high standing opponents but more importantly, the team displayed it could be one of the top-five teams in the EIVA. Despite sitting seventh out of eight teams in the conference, the Red Flash has four players that currently sit top-five in five of the eight categories in the conference. Those categories are kills per set, digs per set, digs, hitting percentage, and service aces per set.

After last weekend's matches, redshirt junior Michael Fisher (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley (Pepperdine)) leads the team with 61 kills on a .344 hitting clip. He also leads the conference with a kills per set average of 4.69. Redshirt junior Patrick Bryan (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) has also contributed offensively with 44 kills to go along with a team-leading seven aces. During the offensive attack, redshirt junior BJ Blair (Bridgewater, Pa./Bridgewater Raritan) has set up all the Red Flash's attacks by dishing out 174 assists and averaging 10.88 assists per set. Redshirt junior and senior middle blockers, Hayden Herc (Eden, N.Y./Eden) and Cole Carver (Hershey, Pa./Hershey) are the anchors of the defense combining for 26 of the Red Flash 33.5 blocks. Herc has a team-high 16 blocks while Carver has added 10. Senior Cole Thompson (Los Alamitos, Calif./Los Alamitos) is the leader in digs with 19.

Follow Along
Both matches will have lives stats and live video on NEC FrontRow. The links can be found on the men's volleyball schedule page.

Looking Ahead
Following the weekend matches, the Red Flash will travel on the road to take on No.12 Ohio State for its only game of the week on Friday. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m.

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