DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The Augustana Vikings men's volleyball team picked up a win on Tuesday night over the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees, winning on the road by a score of 3-1 (25-15, 18-25, 25-18, 25-23).
The Vikings and Bees started off the match relatively even, playing the first 24 points to a deadlock at 12-12. From there, the Vikings rattled off a 5-0 run to take a comfortable lead, eventually pulling away to win 25-15 after scoring 13 of the final 16 points in the set.
Aiden Bond had six kills in the opening game to lead Augie to the early advantage.
St. Ambrose knotted things up following a game two victory. The Fighting Bees held a lead of seven points on three separate occasions in the frame, but the Vikings made things interesting late by cutting the margin to just two at 17-15. The home team grabbed the next two points to increase the cushion and ended up preventing any further comeback effort to even the match at 1-1.
After see the first point of set three go in favor of the Bees, the Vikings grabbed the next and from then on never trailed as they coasted to another score of 25-18, this time in their favor. The Vikings used a 15-7 run to turn a one-point advantage into a nine-point differential, their largest of the set, to go up 2-1 in the match.
Set four saw a back-and-forth start as the two teams ended up at an 11-11 score that saw ten ties up to that point. The Vikings broke the trend with three consecutive points, but the Bees came charging back to eventually tie the game once again at 16 points apiece. Augie answered with a 4-0 run, but this time it was met by a 4-0 outburst from the home team to bring the score to 20-20. The Vikings never fell behind and at 23-23 saw a kill from
Matthew Degnan to present match point. A ball handling error from St. Ambrose ensued to give Augustana the 3-1 victory.
Aidan Bolen posted a match-high 18 kills and a hitting percentage of .314 to lead the Vikings. Bond was close behind with 16 kills and a hitting mark of .313, while Degnan also added seven to go with his 40 assists in the match.
Max Sellers led the defensive efforts with 11 digs.
With the win, Augustana improves to 1-2 on the season. The team will head to Loras College on February 5-6 for a two-day invitational. They will begin the weekend on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. against Edgewood.
