CHICAGO – Roosevelt showed off its depth to the fullest in a four-set win over Defiance on Friday at the Goodman Center.

All 14 Lakers made an appearance in the match with the lineup heavily rotating between sets as Roosevelt (5-3) took control of the match. Defiance came out and shocked the Lakers in the first set with a 25-23 win, but Roosevelt responded with 25-22, 25-15 and 25-21 victories to close out the match. Roosevelt hit .339 in the match while limiting the Yellow Jackets to .185.

Andre Cippiciani was untouchable for Roosevelt with 13 kills on 30 attempts for a .367 hitting percentage. He had five finishes in the fourth set alone to help the Lakers keep pace with the Yellow Jackets in the early going. Simone Augugliaro had all three of his kills in the set in the final few points to ensure Roosevelt would not be pushed the distance.

The Lakers raced out to an early 3-0 lead in the opening set, but some ill-timed service errors allowed the Yellow Jackets to hang around. Roosevelt had nearly half of its service errors in the opening set yet still managed to stave off a pair of set points before a long rally went Defiance's way.

Kajetan Bieniek smashed two big kills early in the second set to help Roosevelt set the tone with a 4-0 lead. The second set was never tied again as five players had multiple kills and Adrian Gajewski dished out 10 assists.

It was even more of a boat race in the third set after an early 6-1 run gave Roosevelt a 9-3 edge. The Lakers would expand that lead to as many as 22-7 behind Augugliaro's five kills before the Yellow Jackets closed the gap with a 7-0 run. Erik Gonzalez and Christian Reddaway came up with the final two kills of the set to secure the win.

Augugliaro finished with 10 kills and a .474 hitting percentage in the match while Bieniek added eight kills despite appearing in just two sets. Keawe Ayau played the final two sets and registered five kills, including the match-sealer in the fifth set. Ashton Stage added six kills and Jonathan Stovring had six finishes as well.

Simone Mondin came into the match in the second set and made an instant impact on defense, finishing with 12 digs. His calming influence focused the Lakers when they were receiving, leading to 51 total digs for Roosevelt. Gajewski came up with 10 digs to go along with his 35 assists while Cippiciani finished with seven digs and Ayau had six.  

UP NEXT: Roosevelt renews its rivalry with Saint Xavier on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the south side.