CHICAGO, Ill. - The Hawks kicked off their season on the right foot on Thursday evening (Jan. 16) besting the Lakers of Roosevelt University in four sets (25-20, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20) behind a match-high 16 kills from AJ Goedheer to give Head Coach, Omar Sanchez his first victory at the helm of QU men's volleyball and move Quincy to 1-0 on the young season. 

Set One 

QU worked it's way to an early double-up of the Lakers to an 8-4 score, taking advantage of RU errors, a pair of Goedheer kills, blocks from Ljubisa Novakovic and Tomas Badan along with a Aleksandar Sosa kill. 

The Lakers came back to even the score at 9-9 before nine of the next 12 points went in favor of Quincy to push the Hawks ahead 18-12. Later in the set, Roosevelt crept within three points at 20-17 and 23-20, but QU stayed solid down the stretch to take the set 25-20. 

Set Two 

RU errors along with kills from Novakovic, Sosa and Goedheer plus a Sosa block found the Hawks with a slim 7-5 edge to open the set. Shortly after at 10-8, the Lakers struck with a four-point run to press ahead 12-10. 

Quincy was able to equalize at 13-13 on another of Novakovic's 11 kills in the match before trading the next four points to a 15-15 score, prompting a three-point Roosevelt run that never found RU trailing again for the remainder of the set as the Lakers went on to claim the frame 25-20. 

Set Three 

A Sosa kill and gem from the service stripe for Armaan Dosanjh put the Hawks ahead 2-0, a lead they would never surrender, maintaining an advantage or tie for the remainder of the set. 

After keeping things interesting to start, the Hawks turned on the jets at the 9-9 mark, using a Novakovic kill to spark a three-point run as part of a 5-1 shift that found QU leading 14-10. 

RU managed to hang around until another three-point Quincy run at 19-17 featuring a Goedheer kill, Trey Severson ace and Lakers error put the Hawks in prime position up 22-17 before going on to take the set 25-21. 

Set Four 

The sides traded the first 11 points of the set to a 6-5 Quincy lead as neither team was able to build an advantage larger than one until the Hawks did so with a Barnabas Fenyvesi kill and blocks from Dosanjh and Badan to lead 12-10. 

Seven of the next 10 points went in favor of Quincy to propel QU to a comfortable 19-13 edge heading down the stretch. The Hawks swelled the lead to as many as seven at 23-16 before taking the set 25-20 and the match three sets to one. 

Stat Leaders: 
16 Kills - AJ Goedheer
33 Assists, 1 Ace - Armaan Dosanjh
3 Blocks - Thomas Badan, Ljubisa Novakovic
1 Ace - Trey Severson, Aleksandar Sosa, Zackary Zdrojeski
12 Digs - Victor Scherer

Next Up 

The Hawks kickoff a long road trip on Monday (Jan. 20) with some afternoon action in Banner Elk, NC, facing off with Lees-McRae College for a 3:00 PM EST match against the Bobcats.