ROCK ISLAND -- The Augustana Vikings women's volleyball team improved to 4-0 on Thursday, defeating the visiting Knox Prairie Fire in consecutive sets in the first match of the season inside the Carver Center.
Augie came out firing on all cylinders, breaking away from a small 6-4 advantage with five straight points. After the teams exchanged a pair of rally wins, Augie notched the final 12 points of the game to win by a score of 25-6. During their 12-0 run to close out the set, the Vikings boasted nine kills, led by four from
Syd Krueger and three from
Emily Schipper during that span. A total of seven different Vikings registered at least one kill in the opening-set win.
Following two points in a row from Knox to begin game two, Augustana eventually flipped the two-point differential in their favor at a 9-7 score. From there, another big run separated the two teams, this time a 6-0 spurt from the Vikings to cushion their distance to eight points. The lead never dipped below that margin the rest of the way as Augie coasted to a 25-14 triumph to take a 2-0 lead in the match. A kill from Krueger and service ace from
Rachel Galluzzo capped off the double-digit win for the Vikings.
The Prairie Fire again saw themselves with an early two-points advantage to start the third set, but was quickly erased by Augustana as a 5-0 scoring outburst doubled up Knox at a score of 6-3. After a couple of alternating points, the Vikings turned a one-point lead into nine with eight straight scores to pull away once again. Another balanced offensive attack saw six different players tally at least one kill, rounding out the match win with a 25-14 set three victory.
As a team, Augie hit .476 on the night compared to Knox's .070 mark. The team was led by Schipper's 11 kills, who hit .588.
Amelie Baehr-Ross finished with assists on 36 of the team's 49 kills, while
Grace Vranicar averaged an even five digs per set to anchor the defensive efforts.
With the win, the Vikings improve to 4-0 on the season. The team will be back in action on Friday, September 8 when they take on Illinois College and No. 23 Coe in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
