Rio routs Golden Bears in regular season finale

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande started fast and never looked back, cruising to a 25-9, 25-14, 25-18 Senior Day win over West Virginia University-Tech, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference women's volleyball action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     The RedStorm closed out regular season play at 24-11 overall and 11-5 against conference foes.
     Head coach Billina Cooper Donaldson's team will be the No. 3 seed in the RSC Championship tournament and will host sixth-seeded Indiana University Columbus on Tuesday in the quarterfinal round.
     WVU-Tech finished its regular season at 6-28 overall and 5-11 in the RSC.
     The Golden Bears will be the No. 8 seed in the RSC tourney and will travel to top-seeded Indiana University Kokomo on Tuesday night.
     Tech was never really in Saturday's loss to Rio Grande and finished with 17 kills and 25 errors over 96 attacks for a -.083 swing percentage.
     The Golden Bears' only lead in the entire match came at 4-3 in set two after a RedStorm attack error.
     Rio Grande, on the other hand, hit .315 on the day with 42 kills and just 13 errors in 92 attacks.
     The RedStorm had extended scoring streaks throughout each of the first two sets.
     A 6-0 spurt to begin the day was followed up by an 8-0 stretch later in the opening set, while a 7-0 run erased the brief WVU Tech lead in set two and another 7-0 streak closed out the set.
     The Golden Bears were within 19-17 in set three after a kill by Aniston Treadway, but Rio recorded six of the final seven winners to close out the match.
     Junior Kelli Stewart (Waverly, OH) had 10 kills to pace the RedStorm, while senior Elle McLoughlin (Zanesville, OH) finished with a monster day of 29 assists, two solo blocks and eight block assists.
     Junior Jenna Harrison (Gallipolis, OH) had 18 digs and two service aces, while freshman Jozy Lougheed (Londonderry, OH) also had a pair of aces and junior Averie Bruce (Baltimore, OH) tallied eight block assists.
     Ivana Burgos led WVU-Tech with five kills, while Anais Gonzalez had eight assists and Addison White tallied seven digs.
     Neveah Wooding had two solo blocks and a block assist in a losing cause for the Golden Bears.
     Rio's quarterfinal meeting with IU Columbus on Tuesday is scheduled for a 7 p.m. first serve.