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Rio Grande's Amanda Rarick sends an attack back across the net during the first set of Friday night's 3-2 loss to St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in River States Conference play at the Newt Oliver Arena.
Rio Grande's Amanda Rarick sends an attack back across the net during the first set of Friday night's 3-2 loss to St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in River States Conference play at the Newt Oliver Arena.
Posted: Oct 20, 2023

Pomeroys pull away in fifth set to edge RedStorm

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande did its level best to pull off an upset of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College on Friday night, but the RedStorm found themselves coming up a bit short in the end.
     The visiting Pomeroys used a 9-2 scoring spurt in the fifth and deciding set to pull away and seal a 3-2 (25-15, 18-25, 25-20, 17-25, 15-6) win in River States Conference women's volleyball play at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     SWMC, which currently sits in second place in the RSC West Division, improved to 24-3 overall and 11-2 against conference foes with the win.
     Rio Grande slipped to 14-9 overall and 7-6 in the RSC with the loss.
     The RedStorm forced a deciding fifth period by scoring five straight winners and nine of 10 points to snap a 13-13 tie and take control of set four.
     Rio trailed just 4-3 in set five after a kill by freshman Averie Bruce (Baltimore, OH), but appeared to run out of gas from that point on.
     The Pomeroys accounted for all of the next 11 points - outside of a kill by Rio senior Amanda Rarick (Canal Winchester, OH) and an SMWC service error - to open up a 12-5 advantage and settle the issue once and for all in the two-hour-plus affair.
     In the deciding stanza, the Pomeroys had nine kills and just one error in 20 attacks (.400 swing percentage), while Rio had double the amount of errors (6) than it did kills (3) in 28 swings for a -.107 attack percentage.
     The RedStorm also finished in the red in terms of attack percentange in each of the other two sets they dropped - -.036 in the first set and -.136 in the third - and tallied just a .023 swing percentage for the entirety of the match (46 kills, 42 errors, 172 attacks).
     SMWC posted a .107 percentage for the night with 45 kills and 27 errors in 168 total attacks.
     Masa Pesic paced the Pomeroys at the net with 12 kills and five block assists, while Ariana Cruz had 19 assists and 12 digs.
     Alexis Keoho added 16 assists and Jocelyn Chavez had 13 digs of her own in the winning effort, while Morgan Krause equaled Pesic with five block assists.
     Rarick led Rio Grande with 10 kills, while junior Sofia Otero Marrero (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) had 19 assists and 12 digs.
     Junior Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) added 13 assists in a losing effort, while junior Ashton Webb (Gallipolis, OH) had a match-best 18 digs and four service aces.
     Freshman McKenna Diedrich (Pickerington, OH) topped the RedStorm's defensive efforts at the net with five block assists.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Saturday when it entertains RSC West Division leader Indiana University Kokomo for a noon first serve.