Rio men march over Saints

Rio Grande Sports Information
     GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The University of Rio Grande proved that its home rout of Aquinas (Mich.) College 13 days ago wasn't a fluke as the RedStorm rolled to a straight sets thumping of coach Michael Crane's Saints in non-conference men's volleyball action.
     Rio recorded a third straight victory and ran its season record to 7-3 with a 25-22, 25-18, 25-15 triumph.
     Aquinas dropped to 3-6 overall with the lopsided setback.
     Rio Grande hit just .038 in the opening set, but exploded with a .385 swing percentage in set two and a sizzling .500 mark in the final stanza.
     The RedStorm finished the match at .286 with 35 kills and 15 errors over 70 total attacks.
     The Saints hit a paltry .091 in the loss (23 kills, 17 errors, 66 attacks) and had 12 service errors to boot.
     All 17 players in uniform saw action for Rio Grande, with senior Daniel Bedoya (Acacias, Colombia) tallying 12 kills and five service aces to pace the winning effort.
     Junior Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) added 24 assists, a solo block and one block assist for the RedStorm, while freshman Maaz Khan (Peshawar, Pakistan) had eight digs.
     Aquinas got nine kills from Connor Staats, while Julian Fira had 17 assists and Andrew Jones had five digs.
     Alexander Rodriguez added a solo block and a block assist in a losing cause for the Saints.
     Rio Grande was scheduled to wrap up its northern road swing with a match at Lawrence Tech University on Saturday match, but the RedStorm will head home tomorrow morning after the contest was cancelled in advance of an oncoming winter storm.
     Rio's next contest will now be on Tuesday night when it hosts Mount Vernon Nazarene for a 7 p.m. first serve at the Newt Oliver Arena.