DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The Augustana Vikings men's volleyball team crossed the river on Monday to battle the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees, picking up a 3-1 victory in their first road match of the season.

The Bees were first on the board, but Auige followed with three points to create a 3-1 game. St. Ambrose tied the game at 4-4 and both teams tied two more times before the Vikings had a four-point run to take the advantage at 10-6. Augie continued their momentum to increase the gap to as many as 12 after seven consecutive points to generate a 20-8 score. A service ace by Aidan Bolen closed out the first set 25-12.

In the second, both teams tied twice before St. Ambrose took a two-point advantage with a score of 4-2, but Augie caught back up at 6-6. The contest evened again at 7-7 due to a kill by Ty Heater and Augie followed with the next two points to secure the upper hand. The Vikings took the second set 25-21 after an attack error by the Bees.

In another back-and-forth frame, St. Ambrose broke away from an early tie to take 9-4 advantage to begin the third. The Vikings caught back up to a one-point differential at 21-20 after a kill by Heater from Colin Schaefer, but were unable to overtake the Bees as they fell 25-22 to bring the match to a fourth set.

In the fourth set, St. Ambrose found early success, but Augie caught up with two back-to-back errors from the Bees and grabbed the advantage with a service ace by Zach Moreano to make the score 8-6. Following a point from the Bees, Augie rattled off four straight scores and eventually pushed its margin out to as many as six before sealing the win with a seven-point win. 

As a team, Augie hit .215, while holding St. Ambrose to .025. Bolen led the Vikings with 11 kills, with Schultz following with nine. Schaefer had 25 assists, while Max Sellers had 14 digs and Heater had two solo blocks.

With the win, Augie improves to 4-1 on the season and will be back in action for a two-day tournament held at St. Norbert starting on Saturday, February 3 against Olivet.