Lindenwood secured a semifinal bid with Thursday's win over Hope International.

Box Score

PARKVILLE, Mo. – Devin Shiroma had 20 kills to lead four Lions in double figures, helping Lindenwood University get by Hope International 3-1 Thursday in the NAIA National Invitational Tournament at Park University’s Breckon Sports Center.

Lindenwood (36-3) also had 17 kills from Dan Laure and 15 from captain Jared Kreienkamp, while Charles Spicer added 11 kills and Mike Larson passed out 55 assists. Hope International (15-9) also had four in double figures, led by 17 kills by Alex Figueiredo.

Nelson Hernandez and Rich Camerlengo each had 11 kills for the Royals, while Gary Ramirez posted 10 kills in the loss.

Lindenwood opened the match with a 30-25 win, but Hope rallied to tie it in the second set, matching Lindenwood’s 30-25 win to tie it at 1-1.

Figueredo posted a block late in the set to make it 27-21, and despite a kill by Spicer to keep it close, Hope closed it for a five-point win to tie the match.

Hope took an early lead in the third set going up on back-to-back errors by Lindenwood followed by a Cory Hindemit kill to make it 10-6.

Lindenwood rallied back to cut the deficit to one late and the Lions later tied it at 23 before Spicer again came up with a big kill, putting LU on top 24-23 six points away from a second win.

Hope wouldn’t go away, though, cutting the lead to 29-28, but Laure came up with a big kill to end the set, giving LU a 30-28 win.

Lindenwood ran away with the final set, using a late 6-0 run to go up 21-16, and the Lions held on for the win, beating Hope 30-25 to secure a 3-1 match win.

The victory put Lindenwood into Friday’s 7 p.m. semifinal round, and the Lions will take on the second-place team from Pool A.