CHICAGO, Ill. – The Augustana Vikings men's volleyball team will play North Park in the Windy City on Saturday before traveling to Naperville to face No. 7 North Central on Sunday.
Augie is 10-8 overall, 1-4 in the conference, and is coming off a three-set loss at home to the Loras Duhawks on Wednesday, March 22. Augie kept the opening game tight early, knotting the game at 10 points apiece until the Duhawks used a 4-2 run followed by 10 straight to break away for good. The Vikings fell behind 7-3 in the second set before getting within two at 10-8. Augie could not close the gap to less than two as Loras increased their lead to as much as nine before taking the set by that many points. The Duhawks never trailed in the final frame, though Augie made multiple pushes at the Loras lead, cutting the edge to as little as one at 15-14 before a 6-3 run proved too much with the away team taking the game 25-22.
Aidan Bolen was the top attacker, finishing with six kills. Max Sellers finished with five digs, while Matthew Degnan paced the Vikings with 12 assists.
North Park possesses an 11-11 record, 1-4 in the conference, with their most recent action resulting in a two-game sweep of Dean and Fisher in Franklin, Mass., on March 18. North Park totaled 37 kills and hit at a season-high .431 clip on their attack efforts against Dean while holding their opponent to a .000 percentage. The Vikings smothered Fisher in their second contest, conceding no more than nine points in any of the three sets to win 3-0. In the rout, North Park set a new program record for service aces in a game with 24.
Augustana and North Park have met seven times, with Augie holding a 5-2 advantage in the all-time series. The most recent meeting between the two programs resulted in a 3-0 loss for Augustana at home on March 30, 2022. The Vikings were defeated by set scores of 25-19, 25-19, 25-14, with Bolen recording 11 kills.
No. 7 ranked North Central is 16-3 overall, 6-0 in conference, and is currently on an eight-match winning streak, most recently defeating Illinois Wesleyan in four sets on Wednesday. The Cardinals defeated the Titans by set scores of 25-22, 25-21, 15-25, 25-17, with Ben Williams and Austin Scott leading the way with respective kill totals of 15 and 14. North Central hit at a .241 clip on their attempts and recorded eight blocks as a team.
In the all-time series, the Cardinals lead the Vikings 9-1, most recently defeating Augie 3-0 in Rock Island on February 25. Augie hung tight with North Central at the net, narrowly trailing in kills 31-28 while hitting at a .108 clip on their attempts. Sean Carlson led the way with nine spikes, followed by Bolen with eight. The Vikings recorded 30 digs in the contest, paced by Sellers, who had 12.
Start time from the North Park Gymnasium is set for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday with a stream link for the conference bout to be found here. Sunday's matchup against North Central begins at 1:00 p.m. from Gregory Arena and will be live streamed here.
