BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings men's volleyball team was defeated in their final road contest of the season on Sunday, falling to the Illinois Wesleyan Titans by a score of 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 25-27, 25-23).
Augie had a hot start to kick off the match, jumping out to a five-point lead at 11-6. The Vikings withstood a Titans run that resulted in a tied set at 13 points apiece and the two teams continued to trade points until the home team used a 5-1 spurt to stretch a one-point margin into six. The six-point advantage held to the end and Illinois Wesleyan grabbed the 1-0 match lead following the 25-19 first-set victory.
It was a similar start to the second game for the Vikings as they held a lead all they way up to 16-13. From there, the Titans put together six straight scores to flip the three-point advantage in their favor. Augie managed to climb back and even the game at 21 points each, but Illinois Wesleyan secured four of the final five points to give them the commanding 2-0 match lead.
Augustana bounced back to win a hard-fought 27-25 third set to extend the match. The Vikings jumped out to an early lead, but were answered by a run from the Titans to give the home team the advantage later on. Trailing 21-18, Augie strung together six of the next seven scores to give them set point twice beginning at 24-22, but were met by consecutive scores from the Titans to tie things up. Illinois Wesleyan faced match point, but a service error and back-to-back kills from
Aidan Bolen gave the Vikings the two-point win.
It was another close battle in the fourth set, leading to ties at 20, 22, and 23 points. The Titans saw match point for the second straight set following an attack error from Augie and this time were able to capitalize as an ensuing kill gave them the 3-1 match win.
Bolen led the offensive attack for the Vikings with 11 kills.
Josh Van Essen added eight, while
Ben Schultz had seven.
Matthew Degnan tallied 30 assists, while
Max Sellers notched a team-high 15 digs.
With the loss, Augustana drops to 6-16 on the season and 2-8 in CCIW play. The team will return home to face North Park on Wednesday, March 30 at 7:00 p.m.
