VOLLEYBALL (M)

1/29/10 - Royals Split to Open Season

By Tim Gooszen

St. Charles, MO- The #2 Royals opened their season on Friday with a tough match against #4 Park and fell 3-1 (24-30, 34-32, 30-22, 30-27). However, they responded later in the day by holding off #10 Missouri Baptist 3-2 (27-30, 30-26, 28-30, 30-28, 15-9). Playing in his first matches for the Royals, Sophomore Kaimi Guerreiro led the way with 22 kills against Missouri Baptist.

No stats available for Park match.

Versus Missouri Baptist, the Royals started slow hitting .176 in the first set but answered by pounding out a .452 hitting second set. The Spartans won the third set to put the pressure on the Royals. MBU put away three more kills than HIU (18-15) in the fourth set but the Royals committed two less errors (5-7) to pull out the win by two points. Defense was the name of the game for the Royals in the fifth and decisive set as they allowed the Spartans to hit just -.067. Meanwhile, the Royals hit .357 to secure the win.

Freshman Johannes Fuchs, like Guerreiro playing his first day in a Royals uniform, hit .407 for the match on his way to 17 kills. Senior Cory Hindemit had a great all around match with 14 kills and 7 blocks including one solo. Junior Brett Massetti helped the Royals cause with 12 kills and 5 blocks of his own.

Junior Andrew Marques paced the offense with 61 assists.

On Saturday, the Royals will meet up with #9 Graceland and #5 host Lindenwood.

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