Kaylor leads Rio men past Pomeroys

Rio Grande Sports Information
     ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind. - Sam Kaylor had a team-high 14 kills and a match-high four service aces to lead the University of Rio Grande in a 3-1 (26-24, 17-25, 25-21, 26-24) triumph over St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, Wednesday night, in non-conference men's volleyball action at the Knoerle Center.
     The RedStorm improved to 7-16 with a second straight win and earned consecutive victories for the first time in program history in the process.
     The host Pomeroys fell to 2-20 with the loss.
     Kaylor, a sophomore from Lewis Center, Ohio, also had eight digs for Rio Grande, which finished the match with 42 kills and 24 errors in 129 attacks for a .140 swing percentage.
     The RedStorm pushed away two set points for the hosts in the opening stanza, scoring the final four winners to erase a 24-22 deficit.
     After SMWC took set two, Rio Grande trailed just once - at 1-0 - in third stanza but needed a significant rally to claim both the fourth set and the match.
     The Pomeroys led by as many as nine points in the period and still held a commanding 21-14 advantage after a service error by Rio sophomore Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH).
     But from that point on, the RedStorm stormed to life and scored 12 of the final 14 points to secure the match.
     Kaylor had three kills and an ace in the game-ending run which saw Rio, as it did in set one, erase a pair of set points and score the final four winners of the match.
     Junior Caden Donaldson (Jackson, OH) and Miller-Bross added 11 and 10 kills, respectively, for the RedStorm, while sophomore Seth Mohr (Canton, OH) had 38 assists, sophomore Bobby Meifert (Bolingbrook, IL) totaled 15 digs and sophomore Ethan Johnson (Hamilton, OH) was credited with a solo block and two block assists.
     Julian Green had a match-high 15 kills in the loss for the Pomeroys, while Mark Zmojdzin had 11 kills of his own and Connor Orrock was credited with 28 assists.
     Zon Mendiola had 16 digs and two service aces for SMWC, while Jacob Wisniewski also had two service aces.
     Zmojdzin, Jonathan Teo and Yammiel Martinez all had four block assists in a losing cause.
     The hosts finished with 46 kills and 28 errors in 123 attacks for a .146 swing percentage.
     Rio Grande returns to action next Tuesday when it hosts Mount Vernon Nazarene in its final home contest of the 2023 season.
     First serve is set for 7 p.m. at the Newt Oliver Arena.