Rio Grande Sports Information
OAKLAND CITY, Ind. - Just hours after securing a berth in next week's River States Conference Championship by posting a road win at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, the University of Rio Grande men's volleyball team notched another victory to earn themselves the right to host an opening round match in the six-team tourney.
The RedStorm outlasted host Oakland City University 26-24, 24-26, 25-20, 33-31 at the Johnson Center to finish with an 8-8 record in conference play and tie St. Mary-of-the-Woods for fourth place in the league standings.
By virtue of its regular season sweep of the Pomeroys, Rio Grande will host SMWC in Tuesday's quarterfinal round of the RSC tournament, at 7 p.m., at the Newt Oliver Arena.
Tuesday's winner will travel to top-seeded and defending national champion Georgetown (Ky.) College next Friday for semifinal round action.
Rio Grande got the day off on the right foot, rallying from a 24-21 deficit in set one to score the final five winners of the stanza and grab an early match lead.
The RedStorm rallied late in set two to forge a 23-all deadlock, but the Mighty Oaks scored three of the final four winners to even things up at one set apiece.
Rio trailed just once in set three - at 2-1 - to regain a stronghold on the match, but was forced to survive five set point opportunities for OCU before scoring the final three winners in the period to claim the match.
The RedStorm finished with 65 kills and 33 errors in 139 total attacks for a .230 swing percentage.
Senior Daniel Bedoya (Acacias, Colombia) led the winning effort with a career-best 27 kills. The mark also tied the program's match record for an individual, equaling the 27 kills recorded by Caden Donaldson in a five-set loss to Campbellsville University on Feb. 25, 2023.
Freshman Daniel Rivas (Valle Del Cauca, Colombia) and sophomore Octavio Tonoli (Campinas, Brazil) added 13 and 10 kills, respectively, in the victory, while junior Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) tallied 54 assists and freshman Maaz Khan (Peshawar, Pakistan) had a team-high 15 digs. Rivas also tallied 10 digs.
Bedoya, Bartecki and senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH) all had one solo block and two block assists defensively, while senior Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH) contributed three block assists.
Gaston Barrionuevo and Tinevimno Goto had 19 and 15 kills, respectively, for Oakland City, which finished with 49 kills and 21 errors in 119 swings as a team (.235).
Danilo Negrao added 46 assists and two service aces in a losing cause, while Mert Asma had 17 digs and Pawel Kulinski had a solo block and seven block assists.
Robin Ruhe also had two solo blocks and five block assists for the Mighty Oaks.
Rio Grande also met Jamestown (N.D.) in a non-conference match on Saturday night and dropped a 3-0 decision to the Jimmies (25-22, 25-15, 25-18) to wrap up its regular season slate with an overall mark of 16-12.
Head coach Nick Rawls used the match as an opportunity to rest nearly all of his regulars in advance of Tuesday's post-season match.
The RedStorm finished with two more errors (26) than kills (24) in 88 total swings for a -.023 attack percentage.
Senior Sam Kaylor (Lewis Center) led Rio with eight kills, while Bartecki and freshman Zach Moore (Trenton, OH) had 10 assists each and Khan totaled nine digs.
Junior Josef Iten (Sacramento, CA) had two solo blocks and a block assist in the loss.
Michael Niemiec had 12 kills and Tomasz Swiderski added 10 of his own for Jamestown (7-19). Swiderski also had six block assists and six digs defensively.
Gabriel Ocasio contributed 25 assists to the Jimmies' winning effort, while Ethan Hoffert also was credited with six digs.
Jamestown finished with a .231 attack percentage (33 kills, 15 errors, 78 swings).
