The (RV) AQ men's volleyball team took on the #4 Indiana Tech Warriors for the WHAC Championship today (Apr. 2). The Saints were the only team that had beaten the 28-1 Warriors this season, and they were looking to do it again. Aquinas would give the match everything they had, but Indiana Tech would just barely come away with the win after set scores of 25-23, 21-25, 13-25, 25-21, and 15-12.

During the Saints 11-match win streak, AQ would pick up five wins against ranked opponents. These teams included #5 Indiana Tech, #6 Missouri Baptist, #14 Saint Xavier, and two wins against #10 Lourdes. Aquinas will be hoping for an at-large bid to the national tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.

To start the match, Aquinas would stick with the formula that has worked for them. Indiana Tech started the set with a big 14-9 lead, but AQ did what they do best and came back late in the set. Aquinas would whittle down the lead until the two sides were tied at 17-17. The Warriors would pick up the next three points and appeared to be in control of the set with a 20-17 advantage. However, an advantageous kill from Matthew Richmond and a block from Robert Valerio and Daniel De La Rosa would put the Saints right back in it. The Saints would proceed to score four consecutive points to finish out the first set as Julian Armendano would smash the ball home to pick up a 25-23 first set victory. Armendano had a big first set with five kills, including several kills towards the end of the set.

AQ would, again, fall behind early on in the second set with the Warriors taking a 12-7 advantage. Head coach, Michael Crane, would use his first timeout early in an attempt to start another comeback for Aquinas. Unfortunately for Aquinas, the deficit would be too much this time with IT taking a 20-12 lead late in the second set. AQ would begin to gnaw away at the Warriors lead, taking the score down to 23-18. The Warriors would attempt to stop a late rally before it begins with their first timeout of the set. AQ would narrow the lead all the way down to 24-21, but the Warriors would find a hole in the AQ defense and win the second set 25-21.

The Warriors would pick up where they left off in the second set and take control of the third set early. Everything seemed to be going in favor of IT as they would take a 14-7 lead, forcing an Aquinas timeout. The timeout wouldn't accomplish much in terms of slowing down the Warrior momentum as they would continue to cruise through the set. AQ would take its second timeout of the set down 21-11. Shortly after, Indiana Tech would win the third set 25-13 to finish off a tough set for the Saints. With a 2-1 match lead, the fourth set would be do or die for Aquinas.

With the match on the line, Aquinas came out fighting in the fourth set. AQ would hold a slim lead throughout a majority of the set. They would take a commanding 19-14 lead after two consecutive kills from Armendano. AQ would continue to hold a significant lead after a pair of attacking errors from the Warriors. IT would attempt to start a comeback and narrow the Aquinas lead to just three points with the score at 23-20. De La Rosa and Richmond would get a massive block to stop the rally from IT and take the set to match point. De La Rosa and Chase Gil would end the set with another block and Aquinas would win the set 25-21. The match would come down to a decisive fifth and final set.

Indiana Tech would race out to an early 7-3 advantage and force a timeout from the Saints as they attempted to salvage the fifth set. The timeout would be effective as Aquinas would quickly diminish the IT lead to just one point. Indiana Tech would take a timeout with its lead down to just 8-7. IT would come out of the timeout and get two massive kills from its middle back to take a 10-7 lead. The Saints would race back and tie the fifth set 10-10 as the tension would build between the two teams. The Warriors would build up some momentum and hold a 14-11 advantage over the Saints. AQ would get a point back off of a Chase Gil kill, but the Warriors would slam down a massive kill to win the fifth set 15-12 and send the Warriors to the national tournament.

The Warriors would end the match with the advantage in nearly all statistical categories, leading in kills (61-54), hitting percentage (.218-.170), assists (61-52), aces (4-1), and digs (62-50). Aquinas would have more blocks in the match with 12 to IT's seven.

Armendano would end the match with 23 kills (.238) on 63 attack attempts. He would also contribute an assist, three block assists, and five digs in the effort today.

Joshua Boothroyd would crack double-digit kills with ten of his own. Additionally, he would add two assists, a solo block, three block assists, and seven digs to his stat line.

Richmond did a little bit of everything again for the Saints with 42 assists, two kills on four attempts, a block assist, and ten digs.

The fate of the Saints' national tournament hopes will be decided on Monday (Apr. 4) at 5:00 PM EST. The link to the selection show can be found here.