RedStorm wallops Midway in straight sets

Rio Grande Sports Information
     MIDWAY, Ky. - The University of Rio Grande established new season-high totals in hitting percentage and service aces and rolled to a 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-18) rout of Midway University, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men's volleyball play at Marshall Gymnasium.
     The RedStorm, who completed a perfect road trip after sweeping Indiana University East on Friday night, pushed their season mark to 14-11 overall and 6-8 in league play.
     Midway slipped to 4-17 overall and 1-13 in the RSC.
     The Eagles hit just .051 over the first two sets, but managed to make things a bit more respectable in the final stanza and finished the match with 23 kills and 14 errors in 58 attacks.
     The hosts also failed to record a service ace, while committing six service errors and tallying just eight block assists.
     Rio Grande, on the other hand, had 40 kills and just 10 errors in 70 swings for a .429 attack percentage, surpassing the previous season-high mark of .349 set in a home win over Brescia University on March 22.
     The RedStorm's 11 service aces also topped the previous high of 10 set in a win over St. Mary-of-the-Woods College on March 14.
     Rio Grande trailed 5-4 in set one before reeling off seven to straight winners en route to grabbing an early match advantage.
     The RedStorm led just 18-17 in set two following an attack error by senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH), but scored seven of the final eight winners in the stanza to win going away.
     Head coach Nick Rawls' team jumped to a 5-1 lead out of the gate in set three and never trailed in the period to finish off the straight sets triumph.
     Senior Daniel Bedoya (Acacias, Colombia) had 11 kills and five service aces to pace Rio's winning effort, while freshman Camilo Murillo (Cali, Colombia) had 28 assists and three aces of his own.
     Bedoya, Murillo and freshman Maaz Khan (Peshawar, Pakistan) shared team honors with four digs each, while Bedoya and fellow senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH) had three block assists each.
     Jai'Den Chinnis had a match-best 14 kills to go along with four digs and four block assists in the loss for Midway, while Jordan Daily had 10 assists and Noah Fichter also had four digs.
     Rio Grande hits the road again next weekend, starting with a visit to St. Mary-of-the-Woods on Friday night.
     First serve is set for 7 p.m.