Rio men cruise past Bearcats

Rio Grande Sports Information
     OWENSBORO, Ky. - The University of Rio Grande hammered out a .364 attack percentage and rolled to a 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 29-27) victory over Brescia University, Saturday afternoon, in Mid-South Conference men's volleyball action at The Moore Center.
     The RedStorm, who earlier in the week learned they had been awarded a trio of forfeit wins - one against Lawrence Tech (Mich.) and two against Oakland City University - moved to 11-16 overall and 2-5 in the MSC with the victory.
     The host Bearcats dropped to 5-16 overall and 2-5 in league play.
     Rio Grande tallied 54 kills and just 15 errors in 107 swings, with senior Caden Donaldson (Jackson, OH) and freshman Otavio Tonoli (Campinas, Brazil) leading the way with 21 and 11 kills, respectively.
     Set one was a back-and-forth affair that the RedStorm finally secured by scoring four of the final five winners.
     A streak of four straight points in set two, including consecutive service aces by Tonoli and a kill by Donaldson, snapped a 9-9 tie and gave Rio a lead it wouldn't relinquish en route to taking a commanding advantage in the match.
     Nailing down the final set looked to be easy, but became a bit problematic.
     The RedStorm led 24-19 after a kill by Tonoli, but the Bearcats staved off four straight match point scenarios and created a set point opportunity of their own with six straight winners for a 25-24 lead.
     Brescia managed one other set point chance at 26-25, but Rio again finished with four of the final five points to take both the set and the match.
     Sophomore Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) had 44 assists and junior Seth Mohr (Canton, OH) tallied 16 digs in the winning effort, while Tonoli had three service aces and junior Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH) had three block assists.
     Tuna Konukcu had 12 kills and 11 digs to pace Brescia, while Meric Akovali had 21 assists and Mustafa Yildiz totaled a trio of block assists.
     The Bearcats finished with a .238 attack percentage (29 kills, 9 errors, 84 attacks).
     Rio Grande returns to action on Tuesday night when it hosts No. 7-ranked Georgetown (Ky.) College.
     First serve is set for 7 p.m.