Georgetown, Ky. – The (RV) Aquinas men's volleyball team is back on the road this weekend (Feb. 24-25) to take on the No. 7-ranked Georgetown Tigers and the Cumberland Phoenix. The Saints kicked off their action tonight (Feb. 24) with a head-to-head matchup against a nationally-ranked Georgetown side. AQ made the match close but the Tigers ultimately came out on top after winning by set scores of 25-20, 25-16, and 26-24.

Aquinas falls to 8-6 on the season while Georgetown improves to 13-3 on the year.

The home side claimed four of the first five points to claim an early advantage in the first set. A couple of errors from Georgetown and a kill from Joshua Boothroyd quickly tied the set as the teams began trading points. A 4-0 run from the Saints that featured a pair of kills from Julian Armendano and a solo block from Alexander Rodriguez gave AQ a 10-8 upper hand.

Once again, the two sides began trading points until another pair of kills from Armendano and an ace from Chase Gil gave Aquinas a 16-13 lead and forced a GC timeout.

Following the timeout, Georgetown absolutely took over. The tigers took nine of the next 11 points to establish a 22-18 advantage and force AQ to use its first timeout. Two kills from Boothroyd gave the Saints a couple of points back, but Georgetown quickly reached 25 points to take a 25-20 first-set victory.

The Tigers started the second set and maintained a slim advantage to start with the two sides going back and forth. With a 12-10 lead, GC went on a 4-1 run to increase the deficit to five points. A kill from Carter Sabo and two kills from Armendano kept the set close with the score now at 17-14. However, a massive 7-1 run from the home all but ended the set.

Aquinas pulled one point back, but the Tigers won the second set 25-16 on the ensuing point.

Similarly to the first set, the third set remained close out of the gates with GC holding a slim lead. The Saints slowly closed the gap and eventually tied the set at 16 after a kill from Armendano and an ace from Leo-Paul Rousseau.

The suspense built in Georgetown, Kentucky with neither side willing to give up a run to the other. The two teams traded points until Aquinas took its first lead of the set with a kill from Boothroyd that gave AQ a 22-21 advantage. The two teams continued to trade points as kills from Armendano and Boothroyd gave Aquinas a set-point opportunity with a 24-23 upper hand.

A kill from GC tied the set at 24 on the subsequent point. The Tigers followed that kill with two blocks from Miguel Vega to give the home side a 26-24 victory and win the match 3-0.

The Tigers bested the Saints in most statistical categories, leading in kills (43-34), hitting percentage (.434-.359), aces (10-2), assists (42-34), and digs (16-15). Both teams had four blocks throughout the match.

Armendano ended the night with a team-leading 14 kills on an incredible .545 hitting percentage. He also had a dig in the effort.

Boothroyd was just behind Armendano on the other side with 12 kills on a very good .350 hitting percentage. Boothroyd added an assist and four digs to his stat line.

Aquinas returns to action tomorrow (Feb. 25) with a neutral site match against the Cumberland Phoenix. The match is set to begin at 11:00 AM at Georgetown College.