Lions' men's volleyball team records two home wins in Charlie Wrublewski Invitational

The Mount St. Joseph University men's volleyball team improved to 2-1 on the season today, claiming two wins as host of the Charlie Wrublewski Invitational. The Lions defeated 15th-ranked Medaille College, 3-1 to open play, and they knocked off Marymount University, 3-0 later in the day. Day #2 of the invite will resume on Jan. 25, as the Lions take on Lakeland College at 11 a.m. and complete weekend play against Milwaukee School of Engineering at 1:30 p.m.

The Lions won their first match of the day, 25-22, 21-25, 25-18, 25-23 over Medaille using a well-rounded attack. In set one, they broken open a close score with kills from front row players Alex Vohland (West Chester, OH/Lakota West) and Jake Neiheisel (Cincinnati, OH/Elder) while in set three, Cesar Trigo de Serrano (Miami, FL/Christopher Columbus) and Adam Williams (Chicago, IL/Mt. Carmel) helped spur the attack. A kill by Williams in set four, tied the set at 22-all, and two Medaille attack errors and a kill by Luke Eschenbach (Cincinnati, OH/La Salle) would led to the win - the Mount's first ever against a ranked team.

Vohland had 12 kills and seven digs while de Serrano and Williams added seven kills each. The Lions hit .276 as a team. Eschenbach added 33 assists and seven digs while de Serrano added a team-high 10 digs.

Lions' Head Coach Ryan Lengerich had this to say about the instrumental win.

“We'll continue to fine-tune our offense and block, and the ball control needs to improve, but the guys persevered and battled hard,'' Lengerich stated. "For that I’m happy. Beating a ranked team is a another milestone for the program, but there is no doubt we need to get better.”

Match two on the day saw the Lions score a victory in just over one hour of action. The Mount recorded set scores of 25-17, 25-16, 25-13. The Lions jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first set, and never looked back, as they hit a robust .667 in the first set. Set two was close in the early going, before four straight attack errors by Marymount gave the Lions an 18-13 lead. Two more Marymount errors at the end of the match put the Lions up 2-0. In set number three, the Mount, behind Vohland's hitting, rolled out to a 10-5 lead. They led by a 20-10 margin en route to the win, after a Saints' serving error.

Vohland had a match-high 15 kills while teammates Lyle Lehmann (Rapid City, SD/Rapid City Central) and Eschenbach had nine digs each to lead all players. Eschenbach also had 22 assists. Williams added seven kills. The Mount hit .348 in the match while holding their opponent to .022.