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Box Score 2 Atherton, Calif. – The (RV) AQ men's volleyball team traveled to the west coast this week (Mar. 16-17) for a pair of matches against nationally-ranked opponents. The Saints took on the No. 6-ranked Menlo Oaks on Thursday (Mar. 16) and the No. 5-ranked Master's Mustangs on Friday (Mar. 17). Both teams got the best of Aquinas, winning in three sets.
AQ falls to 10-12 this season while maintaining a 9-6 record in conference play. Menlo is now 14-4 on the year while the Master's is now 12-4.
Thursday, Match 1: No. 6 Menlo 3, (RV) Aquinas 0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-19)
The Oaks took an early lead in each set and good defense prevented the Saints from stringing together any runs. Due to some technical difficulties, the stats and play-by-play for this match have not become available. This column will be updated once the stats from the match become available.
Friday, Match 2: No. 5 The Master's 3, (RV) Aquinas 0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-11)
The Master's took four of the first five points to start the match with an early lead. A kill from
Carter Sabo and a block from
Alexander Rodriguez and Sabo gave the Saints two points to reduce the deficit to just one point. The Mustangs responded with an immediate 8-1 for a comfortable 12-4 advantage.
A couple or errors from the home side and kills from Sabo,
Julian Armendano, and
Joshua Boothroyd gave AQ a few points back. However, The Master's couldn't be slowed down and finished the first set with a 4-0 run to win 25-11.
Kills from Sabo and Armendano gave AQ its first lead of the match with a 2-1 advantage in the second set. The Mustangs started a pick up some momentum and reestablished a lead with the score at 11-7 in favor of the home team.
Kills from Sabo,
Chase Gil, Armendano, and Boothroyd tried to keep the Saints in the set, but The Master's couldn't be slowed down. The Mustangs finished the second set with another 4-0 run to win 25-16 and take a 2-0 match advantage.
A couple of errors from TMU gave AQ a quick 2-0 lead. Kills from Gil and Boothroyd helped maintain the lead to 4-2. However, a massive 10-1 run from the Mustangs put AQ behind by seven points. Aquinas couldn't stop the momentum from The Master's as TMU went on another 4-0 run to end the third set with a 25-11 victory.
The Mustangs led in every statistical category, leading in kills (36-22), hitting percentage (.389-.068), aces (10-0), blocks (5-2), assists (32-22), and digs (30-22).
Boothroyd had more kills than any other player with nine (.273) to pair with his two digs.
AQ is back in action on Tuesday (Mar. 21) for a road matchup against the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils.
