The Lindenwood men’s volleyball team participated in the Grow the Game Challenge over the weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, facing Limestone College, Grand Canyon University, and Southern California.

The Lions found success by sweeping Limestone College in their first match on Friday morning with sets of 25-21, 25-18 and 25-19.

Senior Adam Brewster said the Lions struggled with key aspects and learned that in the next match they needed to focus on “Trying to make sure we bring the service pressure without the misses and making sure we have all attack options scoring.”

Brewster recorded 44 assists in the sweep. According to the Lindenwood Lions website, Brewster is only the fourth player in NCAA to record 40 assists in a sweep this season.

Moving on to the next match on Saturday, the Lions faced Grand Canyon University, a nationally ranked team. The Lions fell short the first two sets 25-16 and 25-17 but bounced back to win the next two matches 23-25 and 20-25 and take the encounter to a fifth set.

The teams kept exchanging points, but at the end, it was the Lopers who scored back to back to win 15-13.

Charley Hlavin recorded 16 kills and five digs, while Diego Negrón had nine kills and a Lindenwood season-high five aces.

To close the Grow the Game Challenge, the Lions faced Southern California on Sunday night and unfortunately came out with a 0-3 loss.

Nick Stevenson led the Lions with 12 kills and Connor Hipelius followed with 11 kills, three blocks and a .667 attack percentage. Hipelius also had a total of 33 total kills with a .659 percentage and eight blocks to earn the All-Tournament Team mention.

The Lions are now 1-5 for the season and will travel next to Pennsylvania to compete against St. Francis on Friday and Penn State on Saturday.