ROCK ISLAND, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings men's volleyball team will return home on Saturday, February 19 when they welcome in the No. 8 ranked and defending national champion Carthage Firebirds for a CCIW showdown.
The Vikings enter Saturday 5-6 and 1-0 in conference following a narrow 3-2 victory over Millikin on Tuesday. The Vikings took the first and third set in the match, but the home team forced a fifth and deciding game with a fourth-set triumph. The Vikings jumped out a 3-1 lead to begin the deciding set, but like all match the home team fought back to eventually tie it up at 6-6. From there, a 4-0 run from Augie allowed them to create separation on the scoreboard and eventually fend off another comeback effort that saw one more tie at 11-11. A kill from
Aidan Bolen broke the tie, followed by two miscues from the Big Blue to bring Augie to match point. Bolen earned the final kill of the contest to help the Vikings to a 15-12 win and 3-2 match victory. He ended the match with 14 kills with a hitting percentage of .264.
Aiden Bond led the way with 17 kills in the contest.
Carthage has won five consecutive matches after beginning the season 0-3. The preseason No. 1 team in the country dropped two matches to teams ranked in the top 15 to start the season, but since then has lost just two sets during their current winning streak. In their most recent outing, the Firebirds defeated Benedictine 3-0. They are 1-0 in conference play after picking up a win over North Park in late January, also by a score of 3-0.
Augustana has never beaten Carthage in their short history, with the Firebirds taking all seven meetings. The two teams met three times last year throughout Carthage's perfect season, resulting in a 3-0 win for the Firebirds all three times.
Game coverage vs. Carthage
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