Kingsmen Dominate Emmanuel and Lesley

Boston, Mass. — The Cal Lutheran Kingsmen opened their six-game east coast trip with a perfect afternoon against the Emmanuel Saints and Lesley Lynx. Andrew Reina's 14 kills ignited the Kingsmen to their sweep against Emmanuel and overall strong hitting by the team dominated Lesley for the 3-0 win in match two.

CLU Sweep Emmanuel behind Reina's 14 kills

A kill from Kingsmen's Michael Campbell opened up the morning matchup, but leads were short held in set one against the Emmanuel (Mass.) Saints. The teams matched one another nearly point-for-point throughout the set, neither holding more than a two-point advantage. Down 25-24, consecutive kills by Reina and Campbell gave the Kingsmen the one-point lead before an attack error by Emmanuel sealed the 27-25 set win. 

Cal Lutheran continued to cruise through sets two and three, 25-18 and 25-19 respectively. The teams battled in set two until the Kingsmen went on an 11-3 scoring run to push their lead to 20-13 and closed out the set on a decisive kill by Patrick Rowe. Set three looked similar as a block assist by Nick Christy and Brendan Ward created the team's second seven-point lead of the match and the Saints eventually dropped the set on a service error.

Reina finished the morning with 14 kills, followed by Rowe with nine and Justin Dietrich with
eight. Campbell added seven kills of his own, hitting a .556 mark and moving just five kills away from being the program all-time leader in kills.

Kingsmen Overwhelm Lesley 3-0

In match two of the day, Cal Lutheran swept their opponents once again and outscored the Lesley Lynx 75-24. Five Kingsmen hit above .550 and the team as a whole hit above .550 in the first two sets.

After opening set one on a 4-0 lead, the Kingsmen allowed just three points before scoring nine unanswered points behind serves from Kelly Jew. Ward recorded three kills in the run and finished with nine in the game, hitting .636. Just two points later, Cal Lutheran ran away on a 10-1 scoring run to dominate set one 25-6. 

Cal Lutheran won set two by the same score on a 12-1 scoring run to shut down the Lynx. Though Lesley kept up with the Kingsmen to tie the score up at nine apiece in set three, they quickly exhausted and Mason Mercer sparked another 19-4 run to secure the perfect 6-0 day.

Andrew McFarlane led match two with 11 kills and Christy led the team in kill percentage at .857 (6-for-7) and with three blocks. Jacob Sosa followed closely with seven kills, hitting .750. 

The Kingsmen continue their six-game road trip tomorrow against the Regis Pride at 3 p.m. PST.

Box Score: CLU 3, EU 0; CLU 3, LU 0
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Release by Christy Effendie, Assistant Sports Information Director

Weston, Mass. — The Cal Lutheran Kingsmen extend their win streak to three with a dominant performance over the Regis Pride. The evening sweep moves the team to 15-8 on the season as the Kingsmen still have not allowed a set to their opponents this road trip.

For the second day in a row, Andrew Reina led the team in kills with 14, followed closely by 10 from Patrick Rowe. The two ignited the high-powered offense that jumped out quickly to a 10-5 lead in the first set. Although the Pride managed to cut their deficit to 21-20, late kills from Reina and Rowe locked in the set win 25-21.

Looking to even the score, Regis commanded the early half of set two on a 12-5 scoring run. Down four, Cal Lutheran was forced to take a timeout. The break was enough to stop the Pride's momentum, however, and a kill by Rowe sparked the team to score five unanswered points and regain the lead. The score was soon knotted up again at 19 off a kill by Regis' leading attacker Drew Beimel. Regis could not hold on though as they fell on three consecutive errors before Rowe, again, clinched the set 25-22 with a kill.

Sailing with confidence, Cal Lutheran surged past Regis 25-12 in set three. Overall, the team outhit Regis .389 to .208 and had just two errors in both the first and third sets. Michael Campbell assisted the offense with four kills of his own, moving him just one short of being the program leader in kills.

The Kingsmen look to remain undefeated in game four of their east coast trip tomorrow against Wentworth at 4 p.m. PST.

Box Score: CLU 3, RC 0
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Release by Christy Effendie, Assistant Sports Information Director

Boston, Mass. — The Cal Lutheran Kingsmen edged the Wentworth Leopards in straight sets Tuesday evening to extend their win streak to four. In addition, the Kingsmen have not allowed a single set to their opponents in the past four matches to record a 12-0 sweep during their east coast trip.

Justin Dietrich and Brendan Ward led the team in both kills and percentage during their toughest matchup thus far on the trip. Dietrich notched seven kills, hitting .333, while Ward added six of his own and hit .364.

The teams entered set one point-for-point, before an attack by Dietrich and three consecutive attack errors from Wentworth allowed the Kingsmen to jump out to an early 8-4 lead. A middle rally sparked by kills from Leopards' Ryan Love, though, knotted the score up at 18 and a service ace by Sean Spencer allowed Wentworth the late lead.

The lead was short lived however as Spencer erred on his next serve and again Wentworth committed three straight attacking errors. The Kinsgmen continued to capitalize on the momentum as Andrew Reina nailed a kill for the 23-19 lead, followed by a service ace from Grant Nelson and another Reina kill sealed the 25-21 win in set one.

Looking to equalize the score, Wentworth surged early in set two to a 14-8 lead behind Collin Ritter who finished with a team-leading ten kills on the day. The Kingsmen responded with a kill from Michael Campbell setting up the team for four unanswered points, cutting the deficit to two. The teams again battled point-for-point before Wentworth jumped to a 24-23 lead on a kill by Jesse Lefler. However, the Leopards could not maintain composure and gave up the set 26-24 on three consecutive attacking errors once again.

Up 2-0 in sets, Cal Lutheran entered set three looking for the sweep, but Wentworth would not go down easy and scored five unanswered points to move up 10-6. Back-to-back kills by Dietrich though ignited the Kingsmen offense who went on a 7-1 scoring run of their own. The teams eventually tied things up at 15 apiece until a bad Wentworth set gave Cal Lutheran their final lead of the night and Campbell capped off the 25-23 victory will a kill.