Chicago, Ill. – The No. 14-ranked Saints traveled across state lines this evening (Feb. 3) to finish the last three matches of their six-match road stand. The men's volleyball squad kicked off their trip to Illinois with a tough matchup against the No. 12-ranked Saint Xavier Cougars. Saint X got the best of AQ tonight, winning in three sets by scores of 25-18, 25-16, and 25-22.

AQ drops down to 2-2 on the season while the Cougars improved to 4-1 on their 2023 campaign.

Saint Xavier started off the first set with a small 3-0 run but kills from Carter Sabo, Joshua Boothroyd, and Julian Armendano quickly tied the set back up at 5-5. Following the tie, both teams began to trade points with SXU slowly building a lead. A 5-1 run from Saint X increased its advantage to 14-9 and forced AQ to use its first timeout of the set.

The Cougars appeared to begin to run away with the set after scoring two more points following the timeout, however, AQ would go on a quick four-point run of its own to reduce the deficit to just two points. In turn, SXU used its first timeout in an attempt to stop the Aquinas run. The timeout worked as intended for the home side, as a 6-2 run coming out of the brief intermission established the Cougars as heavy favorites in the first set with a 22-16 lead. The Saints scored a couple of points, but Saint X finished out the first set with a 25-18 victory.

Saint Xavier University kept the momentum rolling into the second set. An 8-2 run to start the second set put Aquinas behind early. Three consecutive kills from Armendano reduced the SXU advantage to just three, but the home team quickly began building its lead back again. The Saints used their first timeout while trailing 15-9 in an attempt to regroup.

The nationally ranked Cougars were not deterred following the AQ timeout. A couple more big runs had SXU out in front 23-14. A few points later, Saint X captured a commanding 2-0 match lead with a 25-16 second set victory.

Aquinas attempted to turn the tides early on in the third set as a pair of kills from Sabo, a block from Chase Gil, and an ace from Boothroyd gave the Saints a quick 5-2 upper hand. However, the Cougars had a quick response with a 6-1 run of their own to reestablish the lead. A few points later, SXU managed to put together a 6-0 run to give themselves a commanding 15-8 advantage in the third set.

However, errors began to haunt the Cougars and give AQ a window back into the set. The Saints managed to close the deficit to just two points with the home side holding a slim 21-19 lead late in the set. That would be as close as Aquinas would get. Following AQ's 19th point, SXU went on a 3-1 run to all but secure the 3-0 sweep. A few points later, Saint X scored the final point of the match to win the set 25-22.

SXU held a strong advantage across the board, leading in kills (35-23), hitting percentage (.284-.071), aces (8-3), blocks (9-8), and assists (32-23). The Saints had a slight advantage in kills (23-21).

Armendano had a team-leading nine kills (.045) to go with three assists, a block assist, and four digs.

Boothroyd was just behind Armendano with his own eight kills (.100). He also had an ace and a team-high seven digs.

Gil led the team in blocks tonight with two solo blocks and three block assists.

Aquinas is back in action tomorrow (Feb. 4) with a doubleheader against Viterbo University and Trinity Christian University. The first match against Viterbo is set to begin at 2:00 PM EST with the match against Trinity Christian scheduled to follow.