Grand Rapids, Mich. – The (RV) Aquinas men's volleyball side wrapped up its three-match home stand tonight (Feb. 21) with another match against Siena Heights. Senior outside hitter,
Julian Armendano, entered tonight's match just 11 kills short of reaching the coveted 1,000 career kills milestone after his fellow teammate,
Joshua Boothroyd, accomplished that feat in their last match. In the third set of AQ's sweep over Siena Heights, Armendano joined Boothroyd in the 1,000-kill club with a massive spike into the hardwood.
Aquinas won three straight sets over Siena by scores of 25-22, 25-22, and 25-21. AQ also swept SHU last Wednesday (Feb. 15) to give Aquinas a perfect 6-0 sweep over two matches.
AQ improves to 8-5 on the season with a 7-3 conference record. SHU falls to 5-7 on the season with a 3-6 WHAC record.
The Saints of Aquinas took nine of the first 14 points of the first set to take an early upper hand. A trio of errors from AQ helped Siena Heights immediately respond with a 5-0 run to reclaim the lead. Aquinas responded with a run of its own, taking nine of the next 10 points to establish an 18-11 advantage. A pair of kills from Boothroyd, an ace from Boothroyd, and a kill from
Carter Sabo helped the home side get out in front.
However, in a set of runs, Siena Heights followed AQ's run with a 6-1 run of its own to narrow the deficit to just two points and force an Aquinas timeout.
Armenadano came out of the timeout and picked up a kill to give him two on the match and stop the SHU run. Errors would plague the visiting Saints from that point on and give AQ a 25-22 first-set victory. All of Aquinas' last four points came from SHU errors.
The visiting side took the first two points of the second set, but errors continued to harm Siena Heights. Sabo started the scoring for AQ in the second set, but three more errors had the Aquinas Saints out in front 4-2.
Both sides began trading points with AQ slowly building a lead. This continued until a pair of aces and a pair of kills from Armendano had AQ out in front by a score of 19-12. However, a timeout from SHU did wonders and helped the visitors generate a 6-0 run and narrow the deficit to just one point.
Siena Height managed to tie the set at 20 but AQ quickly rallied. Kills from Boothroyd,
Chase Gil, and Sabo put the home side ahead 24-21. SHU got one point back, but Sabo ended the set on the ensuing point to give AQ another 25-22 victory.
Armendano entered the third set needing five kills and he made sure to pick up all five of those kills. He took over early, giving Aquinas four of its first seven points of the set. Boothroyd and
Alexander Rodriguez combined for a huge block and Boothroyd spiked a ball right over the SHU blockers two points later to give Aquinas a 10-6 advantage.
Errors affected both sides for a good run, but AQ remained on top 16-13. On the subsequent point, Armendano earned his 999th career kill for AQ's 17th point. SHU took the following point, but a massive kill across the net on the next point gave Armendano his 1000th career kill to become the second Saint in program history to accomplish that feat.
SHU used a timeout to regroup and took the following two points to reduce the AQ lead to just two. However, the hometown Saints went on a bit of a run, taking six of the next eight points to take a 24-18 advantage.
Siena Heights took the subsequent three points, but Sabo ended another set with another big kill, giving AQ a 25-21 third-set victory.
Aquinas led in most categories tonight, holding the advantage in kills (38-33), hitting percentage (.282-.159), aces (6-4), and assists (33-31). Siena Heights had more digs (29-27) and both sides had five blocks.
Armendano ended the match with 12 kills (.233), two aces, and six digs over the three sets.
Boothroyd had nine kills (.143) with a team-leading three aces in the winning effort. In addition, he had three block assists and a team-high eight digs.
Sabo ended the night with eight kills of his own with an impressive .538 hitting percentage two go along with his two block assists.
Gil also had an impressive hitting percentage night, finishing with five kills on a .500 hitting percentage. He also had a team-high four block assists, one assist, and one ace.
The Saints are back on the road this weekend with a trip to Kentucky. Aquinas is set to take on No. 7-ranked Georgetown on Friday (Feb. 24) at 7:00 PM. AQ plays a neutral site match the following day (Feb. 25) against Cumberland at 11:00 AM.
