ROCK ISLAND -- The Augustana Vikings women's volleyball team picked up an important CCIW victory Friday night, defeating the North Central Cardinals by a score of 3-1.
After the visitors grabbed the opening set, the Vikings bounced back with a five-point win in the second to even the match at one win apiece. Following a back-and-forth start to the contest, the Cardinals grabbed their largest lead of the game at 16-13 before Augie pulled within one at 17-16. After a North Central point to put them back up by one, Augustana notched seven of the next eight rally wins to turn the two-point deficit into set point at 24-19.
Carmela Carbone's kill moments later put the exclamation point on a 25-20 win.
In the third, North Central saw an early lead of four, but a 6-0 scoring outburst that included a pair of service aces from
Kylie Collachia gave the Vikings their first lead of the game. From there, the two teams traded the lead multiple times on the way to a 20-20 deadlock. North Central added on to an existing run to take a 22-20 lead, but Augie countered with five of the next six points to steal the frame and take a 2-1 advantage in the match. A pair of aces by
Alexis Richards and kills from Collachia and
Emily Schipper helped seal the victory.
Augustana held a margin of three early on in the fourth at 10-7, but neither saw a lead match that until the Cardinals broke a 19-19 tie with three scores in a row. Trailing 22-19, the Vikings responded with a 3-0 run of their own, highlighted by two kills from Richards to even the score once again. A second 3-0 spurt followed shortly after a North Central point as back-to-back kills from Schipper put Augie out in front.
Kacie Swanson capped off the win with an ace to complete the 3-1 triumph for the Vikings.
Schipper led all players with 16 kills in the win, also adding 10 digs, while Collachia ended with 38 assists and 14 digs. Richards joined Schipper with double-digit kills with 13 and
Leah Rizzo had a match-high 18 digs.
With the win, Augie improves to 9-16 overall and 2-4 in the CCIW. The team will be back in action tomorrow for Senior Day against UW-La Crosse.
