Rio women too much for Point Park

Rio Grande Sports Information
     PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The University of Rio Grande battled host Point Park University for the first two sets before pulling away over the final two stanzas in a 3-1 (26-24, 25-27, 25-16, 25-17) win over the Pioneers, Tuesday night, in River States Conference women's volleyball action at Student Center Gym.
     The RedStorm snapped a two-game losing slide, improving to 15-10 overall and 8-7 in conference play with the victory.
     Point Park dropped to 6-17 overall and 3-12 in the RSC with the loss.
     Each of the first two sets were back-and-forth affairs.
     Rio trailed 22-20 in the opening period, but scored six of the final eight winners - including each of the last two - to grab the early match lead.
     Point Park bolted to a 16-9 advantage in set two, but the RedStorm roared back to forge a 22-all deadlock after a kill by freshman Averie Bruce (Baltimore, OH).
     The teams traded points over the next six winners before the Pioneers closed things out with a kill by Haley Stormer and a Rio attack error to even the match.
     The final two sets proved to be all RedStorm, though.
     Rio used a 10-1 run in set three to break an early 3-3 tie and Point Park got no closer than six points for the remainder of the set.
     Rio never trailed in the fourth period, although the home team did manage four ties, the last of which came at 15-15.
     The RedStorm broke the last deadlock with five straight points and scored the final four points to culminate a match-ending 10-2 run.
     Rio Grande finished with a .236 attack percentage, posting 55 kills and 20 errors in 148 swings.
     Point Park hit just .112 for the match, tallying 47 kills and 29 errors in 161 attacks.
     Freshman Kelli Stewart (Waverly, OH) had a match-high 16 kills to lead Rio Grande, while senior Amanda Rarick (Canal Winchester, OH) and junior Jordan Brooks (Reynoldsburg, OH) had 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Stewart also had a solo block and four block assists, while Brooks had five block assists.
     Junior Ashton Webb (Gallipolis, OH) was credited with 27 digs, while junior Sofia Otero Marrero (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) had 24 assists and 10 digs of her own.
     Junior Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) added 14 assists in the winning effort, while freshman Jenna Harrison (Gallipolis, OH) also had 10 digs and freshman McKenna Diedrich (Pickerington, OH) had two solo blocks and four block assists.
     Giulia Follador had 11 kills and Stormer finished with 10 to lead Point Park, while Elise Wallace had 22 assists and 11 digs and Ashlynn Gulakowski tallied 20 assists.
     Eden McElhaney and Kenzie Zaunder had 16 and 14 digs, respectively, for the Pioneers, while Mariah Perez added two solo blocks and five block assists in a losing cause.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Saturday when it travels to rival Shawnee State for a noon first serve at the Frank and Janis Waller Gymnasium in Portsmouth.