RedStorm rolls past Pikeville

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - On Halloween night, the University of Rio Grande carved up their guests from the University of Pikeville like Michael Meyers worked over the town of Haddonfield.
     The RedStorm had their second-best night at the net this season and rolled to a 25-16, 25-14, 25-17 win over the Bears, Monday night, in non-conference women's basketball action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, which completed a season sweep of UPike, moved to 16-11 with the victory.
     Pikeville dropped to 4-21 with the loss.
     The Bears finished with a miniscule .030 attack percentage (22 kills, 19 attack errors, 99 swings), while also totaling nine service errors, four reception errors, two blocking errors and a ball-handling error.
     Rio Grande finished with 42 kills, including the 1,000th on senior Jess Youse's (Pettisville, OH) career, and 11 errors in 89 attacks for a .348 swing percentage - a figure topped only by a .379 attack percentage in a win at Carlow University on October 13.
     The RedStorm scored 10 of the final 14 winners to win set one going away and the final eight points of set two to take a commanding lead.
     Head coach Billina Donaldson substituted liberally in the final stanza and her team scored 12 of the final 18 points to wrap up the win.
     Sophomore Jordan Brooks (Reynoldsburg, OH) had a match-best 11 kills to lead Rio, while junior Shalea Byrd (Canal Winchester, OH) had 10 kills - without an error - in 15 attacks.
     Youse and junior Amanda Rarick (Canal Winchester, OH) had nine kills each in the winning effort, while sophomore Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) had a match-high 38 assists and three service aces to go along with a team-high 10 digs.
     Junior Darcie Walters (Sparta, OH) also had 10 digs, while Youse had a solo block and two block assists.
     Cheyenne Martinez led UPike with six kills and 10 assists, while Mikela Cook had nine digs and equaled teammate Leigh Johnson with two service aces.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Friday night at Ohio Christian University before closing out its regular season schedule at home against Indiana University Southeast on Saturday.