Box Score CHICAGO – Roosevelt bounced back from a disappointing weekend with an important four-set win over St. Ambrose on Tuesday night in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference play at the Goodman Center.
Several Lakers had career nights in the victory that pushed Roosevelt to 6-10 overall and evened its conference record at 3-3. Senior Shawn McCarthy smashed down a career-best 24 kills, the most anyone has had in a single match while wearing a Roosevelt uniform. Christopher Fermaintt had a career-high 18 digs and Daniel Mahoney also set his career best with 14 digs. Tony Galeana surpassed his 1,000th career collegiate assist after dishing out 40 helpers in the victory, which tied his season and career highs.
Roosevelt came out firing and won the first three points of the match, but quickly reverted to old habits with four errors in a five-point stretch to allow the Fighting Bees to take an 11-6 lead. McCarthy served up one of his two aces in the match during a 4-0 run that cut the deficit to one and begin a long stretch of the two teams trading points. Terrence Young Jr. set up the Lakers with the first set point with a block to make the score 25-24, but Roosevelt failed to capitalize before Conrad Para smacked consecutive kills to lift the Lakers to a 27-25 win in the opening set.
The Lakers rolled out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, but St. Ambrose fought right back to take a slim lead. On two occasions, Roosevelt went on rallies to tie the set, but ended up losing five of the last six points to drop the second set 25-21. Yet the momentum shifted quickly though with three kills from McCarthy and two from Joseph Claffy sparking Roosevelt on a 7-0 run that broke open the third set. The Lakers cruised to a 25-15 win in that third set while holding the Fighting Bees to a -.062 hitting percentage.
After St. Ambrose won the opening point, Roosevelt forced three errors around a McCarthy kill to take control of the fourth set. The Lakers trailed just once for the remainder of the set – at 10-9 – as McCarthy had five kills after the set was tied at 11 to help push out the advantage. Young registered half of his six kills in the deciding fourth set and he finished with four blocks as well in the win.
The Lakers return to the court Thursday in La Crosse, Wisconsin against Viterbo in another CCAC matchup with first serve scheduled for 6 p.m.
