Late rally sends Grenadiers past Rio in five

Rio Grande Sports Information
     NEW ALBANY, Ind. - Indiana University Southeast fought off four match point situations, scoring seven of the final eight winners in the fifth and deciding set and outlasting the University of Rio Grande 18-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 17-15 in River States Conference women's volleyball action, Friday night, at the IU Southeast Activities Building.
     The host Grenadiers improved to 12-9 overall and 7-5 inside the RSC with the victory.
     Rio Grande dropped to 12-8 overall and 6-5 in league play with the loss.
     The RedStorm appeared headed toward a victory in the opener of their two-game weekend road swing after a dual block by junior Jordan Brooks (Reynoldsburg, OH) and sophomore Jillian Gardner (Marysville, OH) on an attack by Southeast's Ella Brooks produced a 14-10 lead and match point in the fifth stanza.
     However, a pair of kills by Brooks and another by Abby Ruzanka - sandwiched around a pair of Rio errors - turned the deficit into a 15-14 advantage for the Grenadiers and match point for the hosts.
     The RedStorm tied the set again at 15-all thanks to a kill by freshman Averie Bruce (Baltimore, OH), but the hosts parlayed another kill by Brooks and a Rio attack error into the match win.
     The two teams combined for nearly 400 total attacks in the five-set marathon, which took almost 2-1/2 hours to complete.
     IU Southeast finished with 55 kills and 22 errors in 178 attacks for a .185 swing percentage.
     In defeat, Rio Grande finished with more kills (66) and a higher attack percentage (.203).
     Bruce and senior Amanda Rarick (Canal Winchester, OH) led a quarter of double-digit kill performers for the RedStorm with 16 each. Jordan Brooks finished with 15 of her own to go along with a pair of solo blocks and a block assist and freshman Kelli Stewart (Waverly, OH) tallied 11 kills.
     Junior Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) had 31 assists and 11 digs in a losing cause for Rio, while fellow junior Sofia Otero Marrero (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) had 23 assists and 15 digs.
     Junior Ashton Webb (Gallipolis, OH) had a team-high 30 digs in the loss, while sophomore Kayla Sedgwick (Richwood, OH) had 11 digs and three service aces and freshman McKenna Diedrich (Pickerington, OH) totaled a solo block and three block assists.
     Ella Brooks had a match-high 19 kills, a team-high 20 digs, a team-best two service aces and a pair of solo blocks to stuff the stat sheet for IU Southeast, while Jessi Kramer and Allison Daves added 13 and 11 kills, respectively. Kramer also had a solo block and three block assists, while Daves had 11 digs and two aces of her own.
     Cate Murphy had a match-best 49 assists and two service aces for the Grenadiers, while Brianna Butcher and Reagan Ealy had 15 and 12 digs, respectively, in the winning effort.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Saturday afternoon when it faces Midway University at Marshall Gymnasium in Midway, Ky.
     First serve is set for noon.