ROCK ISLAND, Ill. -- The Vikings men's volleyball team lost by a score of 1-3 to Augustana on Wednesday evening, falling to 2-7 in the CCIW for a three-way tie in 5th place alongside Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan. With just four teams making the conference tournament, North Park finds themselves in a tight battle for the final spot with a looming matchup against nationally ranked North Central.
Winding at a score of 25-22, Set 1 marked NPU's lone win on the day. The two Vikings sides battled back and forth in the early going before Augustana pulled away to a slight lead in the middle of the set at 13-16. A North Park timeout ensued, and coming out of the break, Vicente Cabrera and Emmanuel Eugene picked up kills to bring the Vikings within one.
The Augustana cushion held a few points longer until a kill from Sam Robinson followed by two consecutive Augie errors gave North Park a 20-19 lead—their first since the score sat at 4-3. The lead continued to change hands as match point drew closer, but Cabrera and Eugene again came through with clutch kills to net North Park the win.
The rest of the match belonged to Augustana as they completed the reverse sweep at scores of 25-22, 25-16, and 25-22. North Park's struggles resided primarily on the offensive end with the Vikings combining for 18 kills and 19 errors between Sets 2 and 3. Meanwhile, the defense held up with 6 blocks across that same timeframe while forcing 14 Augie errors. NPU's offense bounced back somewhat in the final set to the tune of a .172 hitting percentage, but Augustana one-upped North Park with a mark of .273 to take home the victory.
NPU was led in kills by Emmanuel Eugene's 9 while Vicente Cabrera, Ty Ingrao, and Erik Bullard all marked 7 each. Liam Miller and Alejandro Condoy combined for 35 assists with Miller's 21 leading the way. Defensively, sophomore Sam Robinson put up a career-high with 7 total blocks (3 solo, 4 assisted), and he also notched the Vikings' lone ace of the match. Elsewhere on that side of the court, Kaleb Patrick's 16 digs were a team-best.
What's Next?
North Park closes out the regular season on Saturday, April 8th against the #6 ranked North Central Cardinals, with 3:00 P.M. set as the start time out in Naperville
