Georgetown, Ky. – The (RV) Saints men's volleyball squad concluded its road trip down to Kentucky today (Feb. 25) with a neutral site match against the Cumberland Phoenix. Similar to last night (Feb. 24) against the Georgetown Tigers, AQ dropped a couple of close sets and couldn't quite rally back. Cumberland won by set scores of 25-23, 25-20, and 25-22.

Aquinas is now 8-7 on the season while Cumberland improves to 5-6 during the 2023 campaign.

An early start for Cumberland that featured a 5-0 run gave the Phoenix a quick 10-5 advantage in the first set. Several points later, CU went on a 4-0 run to take a commanding 15-7 lead.

AQ pulled the deficit back to just three points after a kill from Chase Gil and five errors from Cumberland, forcing the Phoenix to use its first timeout of the set.

The timeout was effective as Cumberland claimed four of the next five points to reestablish a comfortable six-point lead. However, kills from Leo-Paul Rousseau, Joshua Boothroyd, and Julian Armendano quickly had the Saints back in the set. Shortly after, a trio of errors brought AQ within two points with the score at 22-20.

CU took the ensuing point but kills from Boothroyd and Armendano closed the point gap to just one with a 23-22 set. Cumberland took the following point but committed a service error after that to give AQ a chance to tie up the set at 24. That would not be the case as the Phoenix earned the subsequent point with a big kill to win set one 25-23.

The Saints opened the second set looking to get back on track. AQ went up 3-0 early in an attempt to set the pace. However, a massive run from the Phoenix immediately gave CU the lead back. AQ slowly closed the deficit and it eventually tied the set at 14 after an ace and a kill from Boothroyd.

That tie would be the closest AQ was to reclaiming the lead as a 4-0 run put Cumberland back ahead. The Saints were unable to string together any runs and CU claimed the second set by a score of 25-20.

Cumberland appeared to be primed to run away with the third set with an instant 5-0 run. However, kills from Boothroyd and Armendano, along with another ace from Boothroyd, tied the set at 5. A kill from Armendano gave AQ its first lead of the set with the score at 7-6.

Following that point, the Phoenix started to slowly come back and hold a slim advantage. This back-and-forth continued until CU held a small 18-17 lead. With the match on the line, Cumberland went on a 4-0 run to increase its advantage to 22-17.

Aquinas pulled a few points back, but the Phoenix found itself with a 3-0 match victory after a 25-22 third-set victory.

The Phoenix outshined the Saints in most categories, leading in kills (46,35), hitting percentage (.311-.175), blocks (5-3), assists (44-33), and digs (49-43). Both sides ended the match with four aces.

Armendano ended the three-set match with 17 kills (.333), averaging 5.67 kills per set, and six digs.

Boothroyd had 10 kills (.269) in his own right to pair with two assists, a team-high two aces, one solo block, and three aces.

Colin Ilagan had his best statistical match of his career as a libero today. He ended the match with a career-high 13 digs, 3 assists, and one ace.

Aquinas will be looking to get back in the win column on Wednesday (Mar. 1) with a home match against Cornerstone. The match is set to begin at 7:00 PM inside the Sturrus Center.