Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande men's volleyball team opened the home portion of their 2024 schedule on Saturday afternoon, falling to Cumberland (Tenn.) University in five sets before rebounding with a straight sets triumph against Warren Wilson (N.C.) College in a tri-match at the Newt Oliver Arena.
The RedStorm suffered a 26-28, 25-22, 25-16, 18-25, 15-12 loss to the Phoenix in Mid-South Conference play, while dropping the NCAA Division III Owls 25-17, 25-17, 25-19 in the day's final matchup.
Rio Grande finished the day at 5-10 with the split and 0-1 in MSC play.
Warren Wilson, which also lost in three sets to Cumberland, dropped to 4-6 with the two losses, while the Phoenix headed south at 4-8 overall and 1-1 in the MSC.
In its win, Rio Grande never trailed at any point in the contest and finished with a .236 attack percentage after recording 33 kills and 16 errors in 72 swings.
Senior Caden Donaldson (Jackson, OH) led a balanced attack at the net with nine kills, while sophomore Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) had 28 assists and freshman Jakob Tuz (Katovice, Poland) had 10 digs.
Junior Sam Kaylor (Lewis Center, OH) had a solo block and a block assist, while freshman Otavio Tonoli (Campinas, Brazil) had three block assists.
Ian Nicholson had 12 kills to lead Warren Wilson, while Ryan Daly, Jr. had 15 assists and Ricky Castillo finished with 11 digs.
Nedas Nacickas and Tobin Vignos had two block assists each for the Owls, who tallied one more attack error (19) than they had kills (18) in 71 swings for a -.014 attack percentage.
In the opener against Cumberland, Rio Grande put down three set point chances by the Phoenix in the opening stanza to grab an early match lead and then rebounded from an early 7-4 deficit in the fourth set to force a fifth and deciding period.
Cumberland jumped to a 5-2 lead in the final set before the RedStorm rallied to force ties at 8-all, 9-all and 10-10, but a kill by Jacob Whyte and consecutive Rio attack errors gave the visitors some daylight and the eventual match win.
Whyte finished with a match-high 20 kills for the Phoenix, while Alexander Heuer had 26 assists to go along with 12 digs.
Caleb Ginnings had 24 digs to lead Cumberland, while Sam Mannebach had 18 assists and Austin Smalley finished with a solo block and a pair of block assists.
Donaldson and Kaylor tallied 17 and 11 kills, respectively, in the loss for Rio Grande. Donaldson also had 12 digs.
Bartecki had 45 assists for the RedStorm, while Tuz had 19 digs and junior Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH) had eight block assists.
Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday night when it travels to Georgetown College for another Mid-South Conference match.
First serve is set for 7 p.m.
