TIGERVILLE, S.C. --- Junior Brady Markle put on an offensive display with a career-high 38 kills and Drew Blecher paved the way with a staggering 68 assists while the Lees-McRae men's volleyball team staved off North Greenville in a five-set thriller, 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 22-25, 15-8, in Conference Carolinas play Wednesday evening at Hayes Gymnasium in Tigerville, S.C.
The Bobcats (2-10, 1-8 CC) played their best match of the season by hitting .346 or better in every set while Mark Shayka (Hamilton, Va.) amassed seven block assists. The Crusaders (7-10, 2-7) nearly matched LMC blow for blow by hitting .480 and .522 in the second and third set, respectively.
Sophomore Rudy Klaas (Dakar, Senegal) jumpstarted Coach Dave Schmidlin's squad with a pair of aces and a block assist while the Bobcats held an early 4-1 advantage.
A trio of Markle (York, Pa.) kills and two block assists from Shayka provided LMC with a 4-0 run late in the first, 23-21.
The Bobcats swung at a .357 clip in the opening set and won it following consecutive kills from Markle.
The junior's 38-kill effort is the most since Colin Kelly's 32 on March 8, 2008. Markle produced a .526 kill percentage on the evening. It is the most kills in any NCAA men's match this season.
NGU used a 5-0 run to erase a 14-10 deficit in the second while Luuga Vailu'U and Matthew McManaway provided the offense. The duo combined for 26 kills.
The Crusaders had four players with double digit kills.
LMC broke a 15-15 tie with a 10-6 run to end the set while Shayka and John Sobel (Holbrook, N.Y.) contributed a trio kills.
Sobel put together a stellar game with 13 kills and 13 digs.
The Crusaders' Curtis Westra and Connor Rhine tormented the Bobcat defense in the third while powering NGU to a 19-14 lead.
LMC responded to cut the deficit to two, 21-19, but NGU was able to stave off the rally and claim the third.
Both offenses were spectacular in the set while both hit better than .429.
LMC cranked out 15 or more kills in the first four sets.
The Crusaders led the fourth wire-to-wire while Markle and McManaway went kill-for-kill throughout.
NGU took advantage of a pair of Bobcat attack errors to grab a 24-19 lead. Vailu'U sent the match into a winner-take-all fifth with one of his 12 kills.
The Bobcats used a trio of Keenan Freitas (Mountain View, Hawaii) kills and five from Markle to spark a 10-2 run in the fifth.
Markle and Shayka ended the match in style by stuffing a McManaway attack.
Freitas led all players with 14 digs and added eight kills.
LMC will step out of conference when it welcomes McKendree Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. to Williams Gymnasium.
- LMC -
