The AQ men's volleyball team played its second out-of-state match of the week tonight (Feb. 18) against the Trinity Christian Trolls in Illinois. Trinity Christian won the first set by a score of 25-18. The following set, Aquinas picked up a massive 27-25 win to tie up the match. However, the Trolls would proceed to win the next two sets by set scores of 25-20 and 25-21, giving Trinity Christian a 3-1 victory over Aquinas. AQ is now 8-5 on the season with a 4-4 WHAC conference record.
The first set started off close until Trinity Christian pulled off a 4-0 run to take a 10-5 lead. Aquinas would go on a 4-1 run of its own to narrow the lead to 11-9. However, the Trolls would pull a 5-2 run and continue to break away. The Saints were unable to catch up resulting in a 25-18 victory for the Trolls.
The second set was an epic fight between the two teams. Aquinas jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, but Trinity scored four straight points to narrow the early lead for AQ. The two sides would continue to go back-and-forth with the Saints holding a slim lead. With an 18-15 lead in favor of Aquinas, Trinity Christian would score five unanswered points to take a 20-18 lead of its own. The trolls pulled away with a 23-20 advantage and it appeared that the Trolls would take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. However, Aquinas had other ideas and would score seven of the next nine points to come back and win 27-25.
The Trolls would amend their blown lead from the second set and come out to an early advantage in the third set, quickly going up 10-6. Aquinas would fight back into the set and tie the game at 14-14 and take its first lead of the set with a 16-15 score. Unfortunately for AQ, that would be when the momentum ceased as Trinity would score 10 of the next 14 points and take a 2-1 match advantage.
Trinity Christian picked up exactly where they left off in the third set. The trolls started the fourth set with a sizable advantage and never let it go. TC would go on to win the set by a score of 25-21 and win the match 3-1.
Trinity Christian held a statistical advantage over Aquinas, leading in kills (53-46), hitting percentage (.340-.224), assists (53-46), aces (8-5), blocks (11-8), and digs (33-28).
Julian Armendano was again the team leader in kills with 20 (.325). Not only was Armendano the leader in kills, but he also led the team in digs with nine. In addition, he had an assist and a block assist.
Joshua Boothroyd was second on the team with 11 kills (.320). Additionally, Boothroyd added an assist, two aces, a block assist, and five digs.
Matthew Richmond started as the setter and picked up 36 assists, a kill, and two digs.
Darnell Eudoxie had his best match of the season with two solo blocks and two block assists. He added four kills and two digs to his stat line tonight.
Aquinas will be looking to get back on track tomorrow (Feb. 19) with a road game against Olivet Nazarene. The match is set to begin at 6:00 PM.
