CHICAGO – Roosevelt again battled through adversity Friday to fend off Wisconsin Stevens Point in five sets at the Goodman Center to remain perfect at home this season.
For the second straight match, the Lakers (7-4) found themselves down after three sets and yet again they managed to find the will to win the final two sets to claim the match. This time, however, Roosevelt won the opening set 25-21 and looked poised to win the second before falling 26-24. The Pointers won the third set 25-19 before the Lakers closed out the match with 25-19 and 15-11 wins in the final two sets.
In the opening set, the Lakers climbed out to an early 14-9 lead only for the Pointers to come charging back to take the lead at 20-17. Roosevelt won the next five points with Keawe Ayau beginning the run with a kill and ending it with an ace. A pair of errors from UW Stevens Point set up Andre Cippiciani for the ace to end the first set.
As if it was déjà vu, the Lakers led 14-9 in the second set only for that advantage to turn into a 20-16 deficit with the Pointers winning nine of the next 10 points. Then again, Roosevelt found its footing at the service line as it reeled off six straight points thanks to three kills from Mark Zmojdzin. Roosevelt even had set point before UW Stevens Point took the final three points of the set to even the match.
The Pointers easily took the third set with the score never even being tied. The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair until late when Roosevelt seized control with a 7-1 run that featured the Lakers putting more pressure on the UW Stevens Point defense.
Roosevelt didn't have any major runs in it for the final set, but instead limited the Pointers' ability to create momentum for themselves. After UW Stevens Point led 4-2, the Pointers never won consecutive points again in the set while Roosevelt had four such stretches with none lasting more than three points. Simone Augugliaro had three kills in the fifth and Braxton McGonigle added two more in the final set to help seal the win.
The pair were part of another strong game from the Lakers bench, which came up clutch in key moments. McGonigle had four kills in two sets of action and Augugliaro finished with seven kills in a little more than two sets of play. Although Zmojdzin played in all five sets, he didn't start the fourth set, instead coming on in the middle to provide a spark of offense as a middle blocker.
Zmojdzin led the team with 16 kills and Cippiciani added eight along with Martino Bertagnoli and Jonathan Stovring joining Augugliaro with seven. Bertagnoli also dished out 41 helpers and finished with six digs, one of five Lakers with that many in the match. No one finished with more digs on Roosevelt's roster than Simone Mondin, who had 15, though Ayau added eight digs to go along with four blocks.
UP NEXT: The Lakers will get little rest as they make the short drive to Palos Heights on Saturday to play Trinity Christian at 5 p.m.
