Vikings defeat Golden Eagles

CROOKSTON, Minn. (Augustana) – Despite dropping the first set on the road, Augustana volleyball fought back and took down Minnesota Crookston in four sets (20-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-20) on Saturday afternoon. The Vikings will return home with a 9-6 record and 5-1 conference showing while the Golden Eagles drop to 3-10 with a 0-5 NSIC record. Jolie Stecher and Maya Wente led the attack with 13 kills apiece as Stecher made it a double-double with 13 digs and Wente hit at a clip of .409. Reagan Jansen also hit double-double territory with a 12-kill, 10-dig performance and Lucy Bartee dished out 45 assists alongside 15 digs. Gabby Jones led the defense with 19 digs, with Ellie Walker adding 12, and Wente collected nine total blocks. Augustana slammed down 55 kills as a team and held the advantage over its opponent with 74 digs, 53 assists and 19 total blocks. Set one was a battle early on, with the Golden Eagles and Vikings trading kills to tie up at eight. But a 4-1 run from UMC opened up a 13-10 lead and was soon followed by another three straight points. The score eventually ballooned with a 23-16 difference, until a 4-1 run from Augustana with back-to-back Wente kill made it 24-20, but the set would go to UMC, 25-20. The momentum changed at the beginning of set two as AU jumped out to an 8-4 lead. Minnesota Crookston clawed back with a 5-1 run to tie it up at nine but a block from Wente and Bartee helped cap a 5-1 Viking run to force it back to 16-12. Four straight points from Augustana late in the set finally pushed away any come back to help take the set 25-18. Augustana continued to push to open set three, taking an early 6-2 lead off a kill from Stecher. UMC closed in and AU responded with four straight points. When the Golden Eagles attempted to fight back, Wente rocketed down two kills to make it a 19-12 advantage. Despite back-to-back service aces from UMC, Augustana would score the final four points of the set and go up 25-16. Five straight points from UMC in response to four straight AU points opened up at 9-6 Golden Eagle advantage in the fourth. But then the errors began to add up and the Vikings were ahead 12-11. Competition remained tight late in the set, eventually tying up at 19 apiece. But a sizzling 6-1 run, including four straight kills, would end it 25-20 to give Augustana the win. Looking Ahead Augustana will return home for a three-game week with matches against Southwest Minnesota State (Oct. 8 at 6 p.m.), St. Cloud State (Oct. 11 at 5 p.m.) and Minnesota Duluth (Oct. 12 at 2 p.m.).