Jarrod Verhamme (Fr.-Long Beach, Calif.) stepped up with a huge match on the attack and the Lakeland University men's volleyball team picked up a hard-earned four-set victory over Fontbonne (Mo.) University Saturday at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

Verhamme finished with a career-high 21 kills, flirting with a school varsity single-match record, and the Muskies outlasted the Griffins 25-22, 25-20, 25-27, 25-21. Lakeland gained a measure of revenge for a five-set loss to at home to Fontbonne in its 2017 season finale and improved to 2-5 overall this season.

Verhamme opened with kills in each of his first nine swings and finished with 21 kills and just three errors in 38 attack attempts for a sterling .474 hitting percentage. His mark is tied for the fifth-most in a match since Lakeland moved men's volleyball to varsity status in 2014.

Verhamme and Dakota Hunter (Jr.-Waukesha, Wis.) both had big days, with Hunter also adding a career-high 19 kills. The two combined for two-thirds of the Muskies' 60 kills as a team and led a team .267 attack percentage for the match.

Lakeland needed all of it in a contest that was close throughout and included a total of 30 ties plus seven lead changes. The first set alone had 13 ties, but the Muskies stayed a step ahead by hitting .548 with 18 kills and just one error.

The second set also included 10 ties before Lakeland finished strong with Desmond Williams (Jr.-Riverside, Calif.) registering a pair of kills, Verhamme adding another and Noah Cotterman (Jr.-Glendale, Ariz.) clinching it with a service ace for the 2-0 match lead.

Fontbonne (4-1 overall) rallied back to scratch out the third set, but not before the Muskies rallied from a 22-16 deficit late to earn a match point at 25-24 before the Griffins scored the final three points. Lakeland closed it out in the fourth, though, again coming out on top of a close battle by scoring four of the final five points, with Hunter closing it out with a kill to win it.

Addison Mertler (Jr.-Boca Raton, Fla.) finished with a season-high 52 assists and also added eight digs and three block assists. J.T. Levitt (Jr.-Schaumburg, Ill.) finished with a match-high 19 digs and Hunter added 14, while Williams notched four blocks (one solo, three assisted). Trevor Perry (Sr.-Mililani, Hawaii) also chipped in six kills.

Stephen Lendy finished with 15 kills and added 10 digs for Fontbonne, which had swept each of its first four matches of the season. The Griffins hit .197 for the match with 55 kills and 25 errors in 152 attacks.

Lakeland is on the road for its next match when it travels to face Marian University next Friday in Fond du Lac at 7 p.m.