ST, LOUIS, Mo. -- The Augustana Vikings men's volleyball team grabbed two 3-0 sweeps on Friday against the Fontbonne Griffins and the Rockford Regents.
In the first match, Augie won with set scores of 25-22, 25-18, and 25-18. The first set started with a point for the Griffins, but Augie followed with a five-point run to make it a 5-1 score. Fontbonne returned the favor with five consecutive points to regain the advantage until a service error from the Griffins tied the game at 6-6. After grabbing the lead back, Augie held the upper hand before another tie at 12, with both teams deadlocking five more times. Following another evened score at 21, back-to-back service aces from Aidan Bolen moved the Vikings out in front before a kill from Zach Moreano sealed the opening game.
Ben Schultz started the second set off with a kill, with Matthew Degnan following with a service ace to secure an early advantage with a 2-0 score. The Vikings maintained the lead until the Griffins tied the set at 15-15, but a kill from Ty Heater started a 3-0 run to stretch the gap out to 18-15. Augie continued to expand the differential. using a 10-3 scoring run to close out the frame and win by seven.
The Vikings grabbed the first point in the third set due to a service ace by Degnan. The two teams traded rallies, but Augie broke away with a three-point outburst to bring the score to 10-6. The Vikings stretched the scoring advantage to as many as six with a kill by Garrett McNelis at 17-11 and the team closed out the match with another 25-18 victory.
As a team, Augie hit .333, while Fontbonne was held to just .171. Bolen led with 10 kills, while Sean Carlson followed with eight.
The Vikings second match on Friday was against the Rockford Regents, which ended in a 3-0 sweep with scores of 25-17, 25-19, and 25-20.
Bolen started the first set with a kill from Colin Schaefer to take the early advantage. Rockford tied the set at 3-3, but two back-to-back kills from Augie regained the lead until another tie at five and seven points. The Vikings collected three consecutive points to grab the advantage at 10-7 and stretched the gap to as many as eight, with Sean Carlson closing out the opening win with a kill to lead the Vikings to a win at that margin.
The second started with a block from Zach Moreano and Nick Hanusiak to secure the first point of the set. Rockford tied at 1-1, but Augie secured two additional points to grab a 3-1 lead. The two teams contineud to play a back-and-forth frame with several ties, but the Vikings broke away following a deadlock at nine with seven scores in a row to bring it to a 16-9 cushion. Ryan Huntington later closed out the second set at 25-19 with a kill from Micah Reaban.
In the final set, Augie started with a 5-0 run and held the lead throughout the duration of the set. A kill from McNelis stretched the lead out to seven with a score of 24-17 and Zachary Kampen eventualy rounded out the win with a kill to make it 25-20.
As a team, Augie hit .278, while holding Rockford below .100 at just .080. Bolen led with nine kills, while Moreano followed with six. Schaefer had 17 assists to lead the way.
With the two wins, the Vikings improve to 9-1 and will be back in the Carver Center on Saturday, February 17 to host Fontbonne and Illinois Tech
