Rio men survive slow start, top Midway

Rio Grande Sports Information
     MIDWAY, Ky. - It's safe to say that Tuesday night's River States Conference men's volleyball matchup between a winless Midway University team and a University of Rio Grande squad that had won five straight outings didn't get off to the start that one might expect.
     The Eagles captured each of the first two sets before the visting RedStorm roared back to post a 26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 25-18, 15-11 victory at Marshall Gymnasium.
     Rio Grande improved to 7-2 overall and 1-0 in league play with the victory.
     Midway fell to 0-10 overall and 0-2 in the RSC.
     After recording just a .085 attack percentage in the opening two sets, Rio Grande hit .317 over the final three stanzas and finished the night at .205 with 50 kills and 25 errors over 122 swings.
     The RedStorm also survived a staggering 25 service errors.
     Rio started the road back by scoring the final five points to win set three and erased a 4-0 deficit to begin set four with six straight winners and pick up the eventual match-tying victory.
     Midway led 5-2 to open the deciding stanza and trailed just 12-11 after a RedStorm service error, but consecutive attack errors by the Eagles and a kill from sophomore Thomas Lhoste (Courbevoie, France) brought the night to an end.
     Lhoste led head coach Nick Rawls' club with 13 kills, while the trio of sophomore Camilo Murillo (Cali, Colombia), senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH) and freshman Jasprit Singh (Papamoa, New Zealand) all had 10 kills each.
     Senior Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) and Murillo had 24 and 21 assists, respectively, while Murillo also had 15 digs and five of Rio's dozen service aces and Griffith totaled two solo blocks and a block assist.
     Midway finished the night with a .043 swing percentage (36 kills, 31 errors, 117 attacks).
     Jaden Alston led the Eagles with nine kills, while Noah Fichter had 20 assists and Braden Cacek had four service aces to go along with a solo block and three block assists.
     Lincoln Anderson had 12 digs in a losing cause.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Wednesday night when it hosts Carolina University in the makeup of a match snowed out on Feb. 7.
     First serve is set for 6 p.m. at the Newt Oliver Arena.