Grand Rapids, Mich. – The No. 14-ranked AQ men's volleyball squad played its home opener tonight (Feb. 7) against the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils. The Saints came to play in front of an electric home crowd and did not disappoint, winning the match 3-1. Aquinas won the match by set scores of 17-25, 25-20, 25-20, and 25-19.

AQ improves to 4-3 on the season with a 3-1 WHAC record. Lawrence Tech moves to 4-2 with a 2-2 conference record.

A kill from Chase Gil and an ace from Leo-Paul Rousseau gave the Saints the first two points of the match. However, Lawrence Tech quickly responded and built up a sizeable lead after several runs. Aquinas soon found itself trailing 14-6 to start the match.

A few errors from LTU and a kill from Julian Armendano brought the Saints back within five, but that was the closest the home side came to Lawrence Tech throughout the remainder of the set. The Blue Devils eventually closed out the first set with a 25-17 victory.

The second set started in a more competitive manner with both sides trading points. A series of errors from AQ allowed Lawrence Tech to begin to pull away with a 14-10 advantage midway through the set. The visiting side maintained the small advantage until a kill from Carter Sabo, a block from Armendano and Alexander Rodriguez, and a kill from Armendano had Aquinas back in front and forced LTU to use its first timeout of the set.

Lawrence Tech evened the score at 20 shortly after its timeout, but Aquinas rallied again to close out the set. AQ took the last five points and capped off the set with a block from Joshua Boothroyd to give the Saints a 25-20 win in the second set.

The Aquinas momentum stayed alive in the third set as a quick 7-2 start gave the Saints the early advantage. A kill from Armendano for the seventh point forced an early timeout from Lawrence Tech. However, Rousseau and Rodriguez combined for a block coming out of the timeout to keep the crowd energized. An error from Lawrence Tech and a kill from Boothroyd tacked on two more points to AQ's lead.

LTU managed to reduce the deficit by a few points but couldn't get back within four points of the Saints. Armendano was a machine during the third set, slamming down 10 kills on 12 attacks. His hot streak included the final four kills for Aquinas to give the Saints a 25-20 win in the set.

The Saints remained hot in the fourth set as the visiting Blue Devils struggled to stop the AQ surge. Lawrence Tech remained close until a 4-0 run gave Aquinas a 15-10 upper hand and forced the visiting side to use its first timeout.

Seven points after the timeout, the score moved to 19-13 in favor of the home side and the Blue Devils used their second timeout of the set in an attempt to force a fifth set. With a 22-15 lead for the Saints, Lawrence Tech mustered a 4-0 run to get back within three points. Coach Michael Crane used a timeout to get his guys to regroup and finish out the set.

The timeout worked exactly as intended with the Saints scoring the next three points to win the fourth set 25-19.

The Saints held an advantage over the Blue Devils in most statistical categories, leading in kills (53-42), hitting percentage (.295-.158), blocks (10-5), assists (51-40), and digs (40-33). Lawrence Tech had two more aces than Aquinas, leading six to four.

Armendano ended the night with a team-leading 23 kills (.386), 17 of which came in the final two sets of the match. He also had one assist, two block assists, and eight digs in the winning effort tonight.

Boothroyd had a team-high two aces to pair with his 11 kills (.108). In addition, he had two solo blocks, a block assist, and eight digs on his stat line.

Sabo posted a career-high 10 kills on an impressive .556 hitting percentage. He also had three block assists and a dig to cap off the best performance of his young career.

Rousseau had another great performance as the setter, assisting 50 kills along with a kill of his own, an ace, a block assist, and six digs.

Aquinas is back on the road this weekend with a tough pair of conference matches. The Saints take on (RV) Lourdes on Friday (Feb. 10) and No. 7-ranked Indiana Tech on Saturday (Feb. 11). The Friday match is set to begin at 7:00 PM and the Saturday match is scheduled for 3:00 PM.