Georgetown awakens, cruises past RedStorm

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - There was reason for optimism after the University of Rio Grande won the opening set of Friday night's River States Conference men's volleyball match against defending national champion Georgetown College.
     In the end, though, all the early deficit did was serve as a wakeup call for a sleeping giant.
     The Tigers roared to life over the next two sets and went on to post an easy 3-1 (22-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-13) win over the RedStorm at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Georgetown, which is one of three former Mid-South Conference schools who are in their first season as an affiliate member of the RSC, improved to 14-4 overall and 8-1 in league play with the win.
     Rio Grande slipped to 11-9 overall and 3-6 against RSC foes with the loss.
     The RedStorm got off to a good start, scoring four straight points to erase a 14-12 deficit in the first set and going on to grab the early match lead.
     But Georgetown owned the net over each of the next two stanzas, trailing just twice early in the third period.
     Over the course of sets two and three, the Tigers recorded a staggering .482 attack percentage (32 kills and five errors in 56 swings).
     Georgetown never trailed in set four and blew things open with a 7-0 run - capped by a service ace from Michal Bak - which produced an 18-7 lead and, eventually, closed out the match.
     The Tigers finished with a .339 attack percentage for the match, tallying 51 kills and just 12 errors in 115 swings.
     GC also made things tough at the net defensively, recording one solo block and 16 block assists.
     Adam Szewinski had 13 kills and seven block assists to fuel the winning effort, while Robin Puss had 11 kills and Finn Heinemann recorded 45 assists and 11 digs.
     Bak led the Tigers with 13 digs, while Ben Meyers had 11 of his own.
     Rio Grande hit just .094 for the match with 44 kills and 31 errors in 139 swings.
     Senior Daniel Bedoya (Acacias, Colombia) and freshman Daniel Rivas (Valle Del Cauca, Colombia) had 14 and 10 kills, respectively, for the RedStorm, while freshman Camilo Murillo (Cali, Colombia) was credited with 33 assists.
     Bedoya and Rivas also had two service aces each.
     Freshman Maaz Khan (Peshawar, Pakistan) added 17 digs in a losing cause, while senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH) recorded a team-best three block assists.
     Rio Grande returns to action Saturday afternoon when it hosts Brescia University in a 4 p.m. first serve.