Peyton Schirman recorded 19 kills, including the winner on match point in the fifth set, as University of Mount Olive outlasted Limestone College 25-20, 17-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-10 in Conference Carolinas men's volleyball Tuesday at Gaffney, S.C. The win gives the Trojans a regular season series sweep over the Saints.
Mount Olive (8-4 overall, 7-3 Conference Carolinas) jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the final set as Jeff Yasalonis and Andrew Sydow combined on a block on the initial point, Kian Hollovoet added a solo block and Hugo van Garderen served an ace. Limestone (6-7, 4-6) got as close as two points, but Bret Rutledge triggered a 4-0 run with a kill and an ace on back-to-back points to extend the Trojans' lead to 10-4. The margin never fell below three points the remainder of the set.
Kills by Schirman, Hollovoet and Sydow gave Mount Olive match point at 14-9. After a Limestone side out, Schirman sealed the win with his third kill of the final set.
Rutledge and Mike Mann finished with eight kills apiece for Mount Olive, while Yasalonis recorded 50 assists. Sydow had a match-high six blocks and Ryan Thomas tallied 16 digs.
Limestone was led by Bruno Kretzschmar with a match-high 21 kills.
Mount Olive heads up to the campus of Penn State University this weekend for a pair of neutral-site matches against nationally ranked West Coast teams, including the No. 1 team in the nation. The Trojans take on nationally top-ranked Long Beach State University Saturday, then face Cal State Northridge Sunday. Match time is 5 p.m. both days.