Rio women bounce Bears in straight sets

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - With an opportunity to nail down the No. 5 seed in the upcoming River States Conference Championship hanging in the balance, the University of Rio Grande wasted no time in doing what it needed to do.
     The RedStorm closed out their regular season schedule with a 25-20, 25-11, 27-25 rout of West Virginia University-Tech, Saturday afternoon, in women's volleyball action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, which won for a fifth straight time, improved to 19-10 overall and 12-7 in conference play with the win.
     Head coach Billina Donaldson's squad finished the regular season in back of Indiana University East in the league's East Division standings and, based on the RSC's point system, finished as the fifth seed in the eight-team championship tournament which gets underway on Tuesday night at campus sites.
     The RedStorm will travel to No. 4 seed St. Mary-of-the-Woods College (Ind.) in its quarterfinal round match at 7 p.m.
     Rio Grande trailed 19-18 in the opening set before reeling off five consecutive winners, including a pair of service aces by senior Darcie Walters (Sparta, OH), to take control and grab the early match lead.
     Set two proved to be a great deal easier, as the RedStorm used a 12-1 spurt to open up a 15-4 advantage and then scored the final seven points of the period to cruise to a commanding edge in the match.
     The Golden Bears (15-17, 11-9 RSC) appeared ready to fold easily in set three as well, trailing 24-19 after a dual block of an attack by Ana Muniz Rocandio by Rio junior Jordan Brooks (Reynoldsburg, OH) and graduate senior Tess Perdue (Lexington, KY).
     But Tech erased five straight RedStorm match points and then scored a sixth consecutive marker to create its own set point scenario, but Rio scored the final three winners - culminated by a kill from senior Amanda Rarick (Canal Winchester, OH) - to finish off the contest.
     Rio Grande finished with 43 kills and 23 errors over 117 attacks for a .171 swing percentage.
     Rarick had 10 kills to lead the RedStorm, while junior Ashton Webb (Gallipolis, OH) had 20 digs and junior Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) finished with 19 assists.
     Junior Sofia Otero Marrero (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) had 16 assists and 10 digs of her own in the winning effort, while freshman McKenna Diedrich (Pickerington, OH) had five block assists.
     WVU-Tech hit just .022 for the match, with 24 kills and 22 attack errors in 113 swings.
     Peydon Smith led the Golden Bears with six kills, while Julia McClanahan had 11 assists and Yukari Furuichi Blanchard tallied 12 digs.
     Nevaeh Wooding added five block assists in the loss.