Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Amanda Rarick surpassed the 1,000-kill mark for her career and the University of Rio Grande opened the home portion of its 2023 season on Friday with a pair of victories in the 6th Annual Emileigh Cooper Memorial Classic at the Newt Oliver Arena.
The RedStorm opened the day with a 3-1 triumph over Union (Ky.) College (22-25, 25-20, 25-11, 25-11) before closing the evening with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-17) rout of West Virginia University-Tech.
The sweep left head coach Billina Donaldson's team at 3-3 for the season.
Rarick, a senior from Canal Winchester, Ohio reached her milestone mark in the final set of the win over Union. The kill was part of an 8-1 match-ending run for the RedStorm.
The Bulldogs grabbed an early lead in the match, using a 7-1 run to snap a 12-12 deadlock and take control in the opening stanza.
From that point on, though, it was all RedStorm.
Rio scored 12 of the final 17 winners to take the second set and even the match, while bolting to a 15-4 lead and never looking back in set three.
The match-ending run that included Rarick's milestone in the final period was actually part of a 14-4 spurt to close things out for the RedStorm.
Rarick finished with a match-high 13 kills, while junior Jordan Brooks (Reynoldsburg, OH) and freshman Kelli Stewart (Waverly, OH) tallied 10 kills each for Rio, which had just 12 attack errors over the final three sets and tallying 11 in the first set.
Junior Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) had 26 assists and a match-high five service aces in the winning effort, while junior Sofia Otero Marrero (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) had 24 assists and 12 digs.
Junior Ashton Webb (Gallipolis, OH) and sophomore Kayla Sedgwick (Richwood, OH) added 26 and 10 digs, respectively, for the RedStorm, while senior Shalea Byrd (Canal Winchester, OH) had four block assists.
Raquel Kessler had seven kills and four block assists to lead Union along the net, while Abigail Erby and Maddy McGaughey were credited with 10 assists each.
Lara Gomes De Castro had 19 digs for the Bulldogs (0-5), while Nicole Almestica added 10 of her own.
Union finished with two more attack errors (31) than it had kills (29) and had a -.015 swing percentage.
In the win over WVU-Tech, the RedStorm rolled thanks to signifcant scoring runs in all three sets.
Rio scored 13 of the final 17 winners in set one to snap a 12-all deadlock, while a 12-0 spurt erased a 14-11 deficit in the second stanza.
A 12-3 run in set three wiped out a 10-9 deficit and put the RedStorm - who finished with a .246 attack percentage (47 kills, 19 errors, 114 attacks) - in front to stay.
Rarick had 12 kills to fuel the win, while Byrd finished with 10 kills and six block assists. Otero Marrero and Huntzinger had 21 and 20 assists, respectively, while Webb had 14 digs.
Ana Muniz Rocandio paced WVU-Tech with nine kills, while Julia McClanahan and Marianna Oyola Rivera had 15 and 10 assists, respectively.
Brooke Presley had 13 digs for the Golden Bears, who had 28 kills and 21 assists in 104 swings for a .067 attack percentage.
Rio Grande closes out play in the two-day event on Saturday when it faces Milligan (Tenn.) University at 10 a.m. and Bluefield (Va.) University at 4 p.m.
The eight-team Classic honors the memory of Emileigh Cooper, the niece of Donaldson and former Rio graduate assistant coach who was tragically killed in an auto accident in 2016.
