The ninth-seeded Aquinas men's volleyball team took on the eighth-seeded Jamestown Jimmies in a battle to stay alive in the national tournament tonight (Apr. 13). Jamestown, the winners of the Great Plaines Athletic Conference tournament, represented themselves well and managed to take home a 3-0 victory over Aquinas. The Jimmies won by set scores of 25-17, 25-23, and 25-20 and will be taking on Grand View tomorrow. The winner of that match will advance to the final four of the tournament.
The first set started out with positive momentum for the Saints.
Julian Armendano started off the set with a pair of kills and
Darnell Eudoxie had a kill and a block. With a 9-8 lead, the Saints appeared to be in a position to win the first set. However, Jamestown would take six of the next seven points to turn the tides of the set. The Saints would narrow the lead to 16-15 after several errors from the Jimmies. Jamestown would then score the next six points to take a 22-15 lead. With a commanding lead, the Jimmies would close out the first set 25-17.
The Saints would be playing from behind early in the second set as Jamestown would take a 13-8 lead to start the set. That advantage would extend to a seven-point lead with the Jimmies leading 17-10. Aquinas would take a timeout in an attempt to stop the building momentum for Jamestown. That timeout would work as several kills from
Joshua Boothroyd and Armendano would get Aquinas back into the set. With a 24-20, Jamestown would commit an error,
Matthew Richmond would get an ace, and Jamestown would commit another error to put the Saints within just one point. Jamestown would take a timeout to attempt to stop the Aquinas comeback. The timeout would work as intended and the Jimmies would get a kill to win the second set 25-23.
Aquinas appeared to be in a position to take the third set, taking a 10-7 lead. However, similar to the first set, Jamestown would take six of the next seven points to turn the tides of the set. The Saints would be playing off their back foot for the rest of the set and would not quite be able to manage a comeback. Jamestown would win the third set 25-20 and win the match 3-0.
Jamestown would lead Aquinas in nearly every statistical category, leading in kills (37-27), hitting percentage (.358-.108), assists (34-25), blocks (9-4), aces (4-2), and the two teams would each have 15 digs.
Armendano would lead the team in kills for the final match of the season, scoring nine points for the team. He would also have a block assist and four digs.
Eudoxie would finish the match with four kills, a block assist, a solo block, and a dig.
Richmond would end up having 24 assists, an ace, and two digs.
This match with Jamestown was the final match of the season for the Saints. AQ ended the year with five victories over ranked opponents and also managed to hand Indiana Tech its only loss of the season prior to the national tournament. Aquinas would go on an 11-match win streak to get to the WHAC championship and take IT to a fifth set. This campaign was the second time in program history that AQ qualified for national tournament. The Saints finished the 2022 season ranked #11 in the nation.
Armendano would finish the season as a First Team All-WHAC player, ending up with 521 kills on the season. Boothroyd ended the season with 46 service aces, a new school record.
Daniel De La Rosa was, statistically, the best middle blocker the program has ever seen. He set new program records with 17 solo blocks, 107 block assists, and 124 combined solo blocks and block assists.
