ROCK ISLAND -- The Augustana Vikings women's volleyball team improved to 9-0 Friday night after defeating the Adrian Bulldogs and Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers in consecutive sets to begin the Viking Classic.

Match One (W 3-0 vs. Adrian)

After holding a lead for the first half of the opening game, the Vikings found themselves in some trouble to begin their match against Adrian. The Bulldogs grabbed a lead as big as four late in the set before taking a 20-17 advantage into the final stretch. Three straight points from Augie evened the score at 20 apiece, but Adrian continued to match every point from the Vikings before facing two set points at 24-24 and 25-24. An attack error from the Bulldogs brought the score to 25-all before Izzy Ehrlich put the Vikings at set point on the next play. Another kill from Ehrlich and an error from the visitors moments later sealed the close 28-26 victory for Augustana.

Augie never trailed in set two, but the game did see four ties, with the latest coming at 16-16. From there, three straight points off the hand of Jaden Julius put Augie out in front for good, eventually notching four of the final six points to take a 2-0 lead in the match following a five-point set win. 

The Vikings faced another deficit in the third as the Bulldogs jumped out to an 11-7 advantage early on. Augie countered with a 7-0 scoring run, highlighted by kills from three different players. The Bulldogs regained the lead at 15-14, but the Vikings answered with their second of three five-plus scoring runs. Leading 20-19, the team claimed their third big outburst with the final five points of the match to complete the sweep.

Emily Schipper led all hitters with 21 kills in the win, finishing with a .345 hitting percentage. Augie held Adrian to just .099 hitting and saw four players record 15 or more digs. Grace Vranicar finished with over nine per set, tallying 28. Amelie Baehr-Ross had 39 assists to go with her 16 digs.

Match Two (W 3-0 vs. Rose-Hulman)

Augie slowly pulled away from the Fightin' Engineers after the two teams played a back-and-forth opening frame. Leading by a points at 13-12, the Vikings strung together a 5-1 spurt to pull ahead by five. After a service error brought Rose-Hulman back within four, Augustana grabbed seven of the final eight points to complete the double-digit win to open their second match of the day. 

Set two was all Vikings, quickly jumping out to an 8-2 cushion before extending the margin to eight at 13-5. The lead never went over eight the rest of the way, but also never dipped below five as Augustana held consistent separation on their way to a 25-18 win. Rachel Galluzzo notched a pair of service aces down the stretch, followed by a kill from Molly Sullivan and two from Grace Gustafson to help seal the set victory.

Another fast start ensued for the Vikings in set three, leaping to 6-1 lead right away. The Fightin' Engineers answered each of Augie's multiple runs in the frame, eventually cutting the deficit to one at 16-15. One final scoring burst from the Vikings helped them pull away for good and secure their second straight seven-point win to claim the match.

The Augie defense once again shined, holding Rose-Hulman to a hitting percentage of just .060. Three Vikings tallied double-digit digs, with Vranicar hovering around the nine-per-game mark at 26 total. Schipper hit .432 in the win, finishing with 17 kills. 

With the wins, Augustana now sits at 9-0 on the year. The team will close out the Viking Classic on Saturday against UW-Platteville and Clarkson.