Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande extended its winning streak to four straight with a 3-1 win over Aquinas (Mich.) College before dropping a straight sets decision to Life (Ga.) University in Saturday's final round of the Rio Grande Invitational Tournament at the Newt Oliver Arena.
The RedStorm upended the Saints 25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 25-21 in their opening game, but fell to the Eagles 25-22, 28-26, 25-23.
Rio Grande finished the two-day round-robin tourney with a season record of 4-3.
Against Aquinas, senior Daniel Bedoya (Acacias, Colombia) had 26 kills and four block assists to lead the winning effort.
Junior Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, N) added 40 assists and freshman Maaz Khan (Peshawar, Pakistan) contributed 26 digs for the RedStorm, while seniors Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH) and Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH) had five block assists each.
Rio Grande hit .161 for the match (48 kills, 28 assists, 124 attacks), but had a swing percentage of .246 over the final two sets.
Connor Staats led Aquinas (2-2) with 15 kills, while Julian Fira had 33 assists and Colin Ilagan tallied 14 digs.
Kapelie Moala and Zachary Nosky had four block assists each for the Saints, who finished with a .097 attack percentage.
In the nightcap against Life, the Running Eagles controlled things throughout and finished with a sizzling .390 attack percentage (46 kills, 14 errors, 82 swings).
Serano Keijl and Jakub Kantorowicz had 15 and 10 kills, respectively, while Carlos Stadtlober was credited with 40 assists and Kantorowicz tied Alexis Prado for team-high honors with six digs each.
Bedoya had 17 kills, three service aces and two block assists to lead Rio Grande, which registered a .179 swing percentage (35 kills, 20 errors, 84 swings).
Bartecki had 31 assists and Khan had seven digs in the loss, while Miller-Bross and junior Josef Iten (Sacramento, CA) also finished with a pair of block assists each.
Rio Grande will return to action on Tuesday night at Bluefield (Va.) University.
First serve is set for 6 p.m.
