Grand Rapids, Mich. – The (RV) Aquinas men's volleyball team was back at the Sturrus Center tonight (Mar. 1) to take on rival (RV) Cornerstone University. Aquinas was coming off of a tough weekend trip to Kentucky and was looking to righten the ship against a tough receiving votes side. Aquinas would do just that after sweeping Cornerstone and remaining undefeated all-time against the Golden Eagles with a 6-0 record. AQ won by set scores of 25-21, 25-15, and 25-20.

After setting the all-time record for hitting percentage with a minimum of 20 attacks back on February 15th, Julian Armendano tied his all-time record tonight with 16 kills and zero errors on 20 total attacks for a .750 hitting percentage.

Aquinas improves to 9-7 on the season with an 8-3 WHAC record. The Golden Eagles fall to 12-5 with a 5-5 record in conference play.

The Saints started the set by taking six of the first nine points with four kills coming from Joshua Boothroyd, Carter Sabo, and Alexander Rodriguez. With the match at 13-10 in favor of Aquinas, the two teams traded the next 13 points as AQ maintained a 19-17 advantage.

Cornerstone proceeded to take the next two points, but the Saints responded with a 3-0 run that featured two errors from CU and a block from Leo-Paul Rousseau and Rodriguez. The Golden Eagles kept the set close with the score at 23-21. However, a kill from Armendano and an error from Cornerstone gave AQ the last two points it needed to secure a 25-21 victory in the first set.

The second set started evenly with a 2-2 score but that narrative quickly changed. Chase Gil slammed a kill straight into the floor to give Aquinas the lead, prompting Scott Hopkins to substitute into the game to serve. With Hopkins serving, Aquinas took the next seven points to establish a 10-2 advantage and force a Cornerstone timeout.

CU struggled to establish any kind of momentum with a huge hometown crowd behind the Saints. With an 18-11 score, Aquinas took the next three points after a kill from Boothroyd and a pair of kills from Armendano to nearly double CU's score. The Golden Eagles took a couple of points back, but two kills from Boothroyd had the Saints leading the match 2-0 with a 25-15 win in the second set.

Set number three proved to be much closer between the teams as the two sides were tied at nine after 18 points. Armendano got some momentum rolling for the Saints with a pair of kills to get Aquinas back out in front. The trio of Armendano, Boothroyd, and Gil kept slamming down kill after kill to keep Aquinas in the lead. An error from the Golden Eagles gave AQ a 20-17 advantage and forced CU to use its first timeout of the set.

On the ensuing point, Armendano didn't let the timeout slow him down as he shot an attack across the net to pick up his 15th kill of the match. Cornerstone followed that Armendano kill with an error to all but end the match. Sabo and Armendano wrapped up the formalities with two more kills to finalize the sweep over Cornerstone with a 25-20 third-set victory.

Aquinas comfortably led in most categories, holding the advantage in kills (44-30), hitting percentage (.514-.190), assists (41-30), and digs (26-17). Both teams had five aces and Cornerstone had the upper hand in blocks (5-3).

In addition to his record-tying performance, Armendano had two assists, one ace, one block assist, and four digs.

Gil had an incredible performance in his own right with a near-perfect eight kills on nine attacks with zero errors (.889 hitting percentage).

Boothroyd also cracked double-digit kills with 11 on the night with a .375 hitting percentage. He also had a team-leading three aces and two digs.

Rousseau arguably had his best match of the season with 38 assists over three sets, averaging nearly 13 assists per set. Additionally, he had two kills, a team-leading nine digs, and one block assist.

Aquinas is back on the road again this weekend (Mar. 3-4) with matchups against Bethel and Goshen. Aquinas is scheduled to take on Bethel on Friday (Mar. 3) with a 7:00 PM start time. The Saints are right back at it on Saturday (Mar. 4) to battle Goshen at 3:00 PM.