Rio Grande Sports Information
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - The University of Rio Grande men's volleyball team dropped both ends of tri-match hosted by Campbellsville University, falling to the host Tigers in straight sets on Friday night and dropping a 3-0 decision to Life (Ga.) University on Saturday morning at Gosser Gymnasium.
Campbellsville, ranked 19th in the lates NAIA Coaches' Poll, posted a 25-16, 25-21, 25-20 win over the RedStorm, while Life defeated Rio by scores of 25-21, 25-23, 25-14.
Head coach Nick Rawls' squad finished the weekend at 5-13 overall and 0-3 in Mid-South Conference play.
In its MSC match with Campbellsville, Rio scored five of the first six points in the match before the Tigers rebounded to win the opening stanza and take a commanding match lead by leading from start to finish in set two.
The RedStorm had a trio of one-point advantage in a back-and-forth third set, including 11-10 after an attack error by the Tigers, but Campbellsville scored the next three points to take a lead it would never relinquish en route to winning the match.
John-Marcos Gonzalez had 10 kills to lead the Tigers, while Alonzo Vega and Matheus Curi had 11 and 10 assists, respectively, in the winning effort.
Andres Laboy had 15 digs for Campbellsville and Joao Tavares was credited with two solo blocks and a trio of block assists.
The Tigers (11-4, 3-0 MSC) hit .295 for the match with 33 kills and 10 errors in 78 attacks.
Junior Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH) had nine kills to pace Rio Grande, which hit just .115 (33 kills, 23 errors, 87 attacks). He also had a solo block and a block assist.
Sophomore Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) had a match-high 28 assists, while senior Caden Donaldson (Jackson, OH) and junior Seth Mohr (Canton, OH) had eight digs each.
Due to a switch in game time on Saturday and the match not being fully-staffed, complete statistics were not immediately available. Only numbers from the final two sets were provided.
The Running Eagles (10-3) recorded a sizzling .404 attack percentage over the final two sets with 28 kills and just seven errors in 52 swings.
Rio Grande, on the other hand, had 13 kills and 10 errors over 46 attacks in sets two and three for a .065 swing percentage.
Donaldson and freshman Jakub Tuz (Katovice, Poland) had four kills each for the RedStorm, while Bartecki had 10 assists and Mohr had five digs. Miller-Bross added two block assists.
Jose Llaneza and David Barcan had kills each for Life, with Carlos Pinto tallying 13 assists and Alexis Prado recording four digs.
Jeremy Ferreira had four block assists for the Eagles.
Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Saturday night when it hosts Brescia University for a 7 p.m. first serve.
The RedStorm were supposed to have played Oakland City University on Friday night, but will receive a forfeit victory instead after the Mighty Oaks folded their program.
