The Belmont Abbey men's volleyball team rallied back from an 0-2 deficit to force a fifth set, but Mount Olive won the decisive set in a 19-17 marathon to earn a 3-2 victory this afternoon in Kornegay Arena. The Trojans won by scores of 25-23, 25-18, 17-25, 14-25 and 19-17 to improve their record to 11-9 overall and 9-6 in Conference Carolinas. Belmont Abbey falls to 11-11 overall and 7-7 in league play.

Today was the final road match for the Crusaders, who will close the regular season with four home matches, starting with Tuesday night's battle against King.

Belmont Abbey hit a sparkling .316 for the match as three players reached double figures. Nolan Albrecht led all players with 21 kills as he hit .349. Anthony Pippen added 18 and Dustin Buell added 10.  Pippen hit .548 as he had just one error on 31 total attacks. Derek Sullivan handed out a school-record 53 assists, besting his record by two that he set earlier this year in a 3-2 home win over Alderson-Broaddus.

The defense posted 44 digs as three players-Pippen, Brandon Kimbrell and Jon Lowenhagen-recorded seven. Albrecht added six.

Justin Snyder led the way with four block assists. Albrecht added three and Pippen finished with a pair.

After hitting .310 in the first set, the Crusaders slipped to .156 in the second. The third and fourth sets saw the offense come alive, as the Abbey hit .407 in the third set and .478 in the fourth.