PARKVILLE, Mo. — California Baptist University will be the first one to tell you it can’t wait to go to Davenport, Iowa next year when the 2010 NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Invitational Tournament moves to St. Ambrose. After the last two years the Lancers are more than tired of losing inside the Breckon Sports Center at Park University.

Despite heading into the 2009 NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Invitational title game as the top seed, and having defeated its opponent twice in Riverside, the Lancers (25-8) again will have to wait another year for a shot at the title after No. 2 Lindenwood won this year’s championship with a 3-0 (30-20, 30-28, 30-27) win over CBU.

From the opening point there wasn’t too much doubt who was in control.

Neither team led by more than two in the opening set until the Lions used a 9-2 run to take a 25-17 lead late in the first set. The bleeding continued from there with Lindenwood closing out the set with a 5-3 run. The Lancers hit. -.200 (8-13-25) in the opening set and never really found a rhythm throughout the night.

The second set was the best chance for the Lancers to get back in the match and they led on three different occasions early, but Lindenwood gained even more momentum with a 6-1 run to go up 12-8. The Lions led 18-15 when CBU went on a 7-3 run to take a 22-21 lead that was capped by an Adiel Tiedjop ace. The lead was short lived after four straight errors left CBU trailing 25-22. Mohamed Khattab made it 25-23 with a kill, but the Lions stretched it back out to 28-23 on back-to-back aces by Dan Laure and a Jared Kreienkamp kill. Levi Cabral looked to be breathing life back into the Lancers after he sparked a 5-1 run by the Lancers that put CBU within one at 29-28, but a kill form Charles Spicer scored the set win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

CBU may have held an early lead at 2-1 in the final set, but it was all Lindenwood from there. Kreienkamp ignited a 9-1 run to take a 10-3 lead and the title dreams began to get a little clearer for the Lions. Trailing 14-7, Tiedjop ripped three kills and Cabral added another to bring CBU within four at 15-11 and forced an LU timeout. After the timeout, the Lions scored five of the next six points to tie its biggest lead at 20-12. CBU began to chip away at the lead and got within three on a handful of occasions before a Blair Penner and Adam Church block made it 29-27. Tiedjop though sailed one beyond the baseline on the final play to end the 2009 season.

Cabral and Tiedjop led the way for CBU with both ripping a match-high 15 kills to bring their single-season totals to 584 and 595. Penner dished out 41 more assists to take his single-season mark to 1,524 and he also holds the school’s single-season record with 71 aces. Adam Cook was one dig away from double figures with nine.

Church ripped five kills and had two blocks in his final game as a Lancer and is the only player who will not return for the 2010 season. Church finished his career with 154 blocks and 231 kills. He totaled 132 blocks this season, the third most in a single season in school history.