LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings women's volleyball team improved to 2-0 on Friday night following a 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-20) victory over the Trine Thunder in a neutral-site contest hosted by Lake Forest College.
Following a back-and-forth start to the match, Augie jumped ahead with a 6-0 run in the opening set to turn a 4-3 advantage to 10-3. The Vikings held onto their lead throughout the remainder of the game, with the Thunder unable to get the margin under three. The Vikings halted a late Trine threat at 19-16 with six of the final seven points scored to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Set two also saw multiple runs from Augustana as the Vikings quickly doubled up the Thunder with a 10-5 advantage before using another 6-0 spurt later on to increase a two-point margin to eight at 17-9. Trine got within five at one point, but a string of kills from
Caroline Hurst and
Jaden Julius, paired with consecutive attack errors from the Thunder prevented any comeback threat and eventually resulted in a nine-point victory for the Vikings.
The first seven points scored in set three belonged to Augie as they continued their momentum onward. Between the end of the second and the beginning of the third, the Vikings had scored 16 of 19 points overall and their third-set cushion allowed them to fend off a late rally from the Thunder. With the score reading 20-12, Trine made it interesting with an 8-1 run to cut the margin to three at 21-18 and again at 22-19. A kill from Hurst and an error from the Thunder pushed the differential back out to five, with the match-clinching kill coming two rallies later off of the arm of
Ja'Nya Davis.
Hurst led all players in the match with nine kills, followed by
Sydney Krueger with seven. Krueger posted a hitting percentage of .545 in the match.
Amelie Baehr-Ross posted a match high 23 assists, while
Grace Vranicar anchored the defensive efforts with 15 digs. Julius added three more service aces and now has nine on the season through just two matches.
With the win, Augie improves to 2-0 on the year. The team will be back in action tomorrow for two more neutral contests, beginning with Illinois Tech at 11:00 a.m., followed by Lakeland at 3:00 p.m.
