KEARNEY, Neb. -- The Augustana volleyball program finished the second and final day of the Loper Pre-Season Invite splitting a pair of matches against Adams State and No. 11 Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday. 

Adams State
After dropping the first set of the day to the Grizzlies, Augustana (3-1) won three-straight sets to pick up the 23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 victory to move to 3-0 on the young season. 

The first set was a competitive back-and-forth battle, but ultimately the Grizzlies found a way to pull away after tying it at 23 with back-to-back kills to earn the victory. 

Just like yesterday, Augustana came alive in the second set jumping out to an early 8-4 lead forcing a quick timeout from Adams State who was hoping to stop the momentum the Vikings were building. For the time being, it worked as the Grizzlies scored the next three points to tie it up at 8 all before Augustana pulled away for good. 

The third set was similar to the second as Augustana jumped out to an early 6-2 lead before Adams State clawed back to tie it up at 10-10. That's where the similarities ended as the Vikings went off for a 15-5 run to end the set. 

The fourth and final set was just as competitive as the first, with neither team being able to really pull away from one another. The Grizzlies came out strong and had a 10-5 lead but the Vikings fought back to tie it at 15 all. For the rest of the set, there were six lead changes with the largest lead coming when sophomore Izzy Sommers slammed one home for the 25-22 match point. 

Freshman Maddy Guetter continued to shine in her Viking debut with 12 kills for a .281 attacking percentage. Guetter has hit double-digit kills in all three games so far this season for the Vikings. Another freshman, Erika Bute, also has been impressive in her debut as she recorded 31 digs for the Vikings. 

Sophomore Grace Haberland led the charge with 13 kills and collected 12 digs for her second double-double of the season. Sophomore Avery Thorson led the team with 47 assists and recorded nine digs. 

Nebraska-Kearney
A matchup of the tournament's two undefeated teams ended in a 25-12, 25-16, 25-17 victory for the host team. 

Augustana came out strong early with kills from Abby Benson, Guetter and Sommers to grab a 4-3 lead before the Lopers answered back with a 7-1 run that prompted a Viking timeout. Unfortunately, UNK would continue its hot hitting and reeled off another big scoring streak to run away with the first set.  The Lopers stayed hot in the second set as they jumped out to leads of 11-6 and 17-9 before a late rally from Augustana fell short. 

In the third set, UNK showed why it was the 11th-ranked team in the nation, winning the third and final set 25-17. 

Sommers, Haberland and Payton Rosendahl all finished with five kills to lead the Vikings while Thorson finished with 16 assists.

Quotable: 
"That was a tough loss at the end to Kearney," head coach Jennifer Jacobs said. "We are going to want that match back as we know we didn't give them our best match. However, we learned a lot about ourselves and I'm glad we went 3-1 on the weekend. We are looking forward to our trip to Kingsville, Texas, next weekend!"

All-Tournament Team:
Thorson and Bute represented Augustana on the 2019 Loper Preseason Invite All-Tournament team after both had successful weekends. Thorson averaged 10.43 asissts per set (146 total), 1.21 kills/set (17 total) and 3.29 digs per set (46 total). The sophomore was one shy of tying her single match career-high for assists. Bute impressed in her Viking debut averaging 6.14 digs per set (86 total) which led the team over the weekend. 

Up Next:
The Vikings will travel to Texas to compete in the Texas A&M Kingsville Invite on Friday and Saturday to finish up their nonconference schedule. 

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