Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The day got off to an inauspicious start.
It finished as it was supposed to.
The University of Rio Grande fell to Shawnee State in the opening match of the day before rebounding with a straight sets sweep of the University of Cincinnati-Clermont in a Saturday afternoon triangular at the New Oliver Arena.
The rival Bears topped head coach Billina Cooper Donaldson's squad in a River States Conference affair by scores of 25-13, 25-22, 21-25, 25-23 before the RedStorm cruised past the Cougars 25-15, 25-12, 25-15.
With the split, Rio Grande finished the day at 23-11 overall and 10-5 in conference play.
Shawnee State, which also defeated Clermont, headed home at 19-10 overall and 9-5 in the RSC.
UC-Clermont, which is the top-ranked team in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Division II poll, finished the day at 23-7.
In the opening tilt against Shawnee State, the Bears used a pair of 8-0 runs in the opening set to cruise to an early lead and then used a 3-0 spurt to snap a 12-all deadlock in set two and take a commanding match advantage.
Rio, who had won each of the first two meetings between the teams this season, kept the match going by scoring five of the final seven winners in set three, but Shawnee finished things off by scoring six of the final seven points in set four to close out the match.
Shawnee State finished with a .220 attack percentage (47 kills, 19 errors, 127 swings) and 11 service aces in the victory.
Bree Hicks and Katelynn Boerger had 12 and 11 kills, respectively, for the Bears, while Cally Carpenter and Makaela Lovely tallied 19 and 14 assists, respectively.
Lovely also had four aces, while Carpenter had 12 digs and three aces and Ava Jenkins had three aces of her own.
Megan Steele led SSU with 20 digs, while Boerger had six block assists and the duo of Natalie Reida and Camille McIntosh both had a solo block and four block assists.
Rio Grande had a .170 swing percentage with 51 kills and 28 errors over 135 attacks.
Junior Kelli Stewart (Waverly, OH) led the RedStorm with 18 kills, while junior Averie Bruce (Baltimore, MD) and redshirt freshman Taylor Bartrum (Catlettsburg, KY) had 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Bartrum also had a team-best 18 digs and Bruce finished with a solo block and a block assist.
Senior Elle McLoughlin (Zanesville, OH) finished with 39 assists and freshman Mary Osten (Portage, IN) had 12 digs in a losing cause.
The nightcap against UC-Clermont went much more to script with Rio Grande dominating from start to finish despite regulars such as Bartrum, McLoughlin and Stewart all sitting out.
The RedStorm finished with 38 kills and 12 errors over 80 swings for a .325 attack percentage, while also tallying 11 aces.
The Cougars had just 17 kills as opposed to 19 errors in 79 swings for a -.025 attack percentage.
Bruce and freshman Katie Marshall (Carroll, OH) had nine kills each in the win, with sophomore Lydia Steyer (Perrysburg, OH) handing out 26 assists and freshman Jozy Lougheed (Lononderry, OH) collecting 10 digs and a trio of service aces.
Osten also had three service aces, while Bruce, senior Olivia Smith (Bainbridge, OH) and junior Tia Cooper (Indianapolis, IN) all had a trio of block assists.
Kaitlyn Finnigan had eight kills and two block assists to pace the Cougars, with Hannah Daniels handing out 10 assists and Mary Pfister tallying seven digs in a losing cause.
Rio Grande will wrap up its regular season schedule on Saturday when it hosts West Virginia University Tech in a noon first serve.
