Rio women roll past Golden Bears

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - One team looked like it wanted to be there.
     The other appeared as if it couldn't wait to leave.
     The University of Rio Grande blitzed visiting West Virginia University-Tech at the start of each set and never looked back, cruising to a 25-10, 25-13, 25-13 rout of the Golden Bears, Thursday night, in River States Conference women's volleyball action.
     The RedStorm needed just 58 minutes to push their record to 26-8 overall and 13-2 in league play.
     WVU-Tech slipped to 11-16 overall and 7-8 against RSC foes as a result of the loss.
     The Golden Bears finished with five more errors (24) than they had kills (19) in 99 attacks for a -.051 swing percentage.
     Rio Grande led 8-1 to begin the opening set and jumped to 8-2 advantages in both sets two and three.
     The RedStorm closed out set one with the final eight points, while scoring the final six winners in the second stanza and tallying 11 of the final 13 points in set three.
     Rio Grande finished with a .312 attack percentage (41 kills, 12 errors, 93 swings) as a team.
     The RedStorm were led by senior Amanda Rarick (Canal Winchester, OH) and the sophomore duo of Kelli Stewart (Waverly, OH) and McKenna Diederich (Pickerington, OH), who combined for 29 kills and just four errors in 61 attacks.
     Rarick had a match-high 13 kills and just one error in 28 attacks, while Diederich had eight kills and one error in 12 swings and Stewart finished with eight kills and two errors in 21 attacks.
     Diederich also had a solo block and four block assists in the winning effort.
     Junior Elle McLoughlin (Zanesville, OH), who was honored in pre-game ceremonies after surpassing the 2,000-assist mark for her collegiate career during last Saturday's win over Georgetown (Ky.) College, added a match-best 31 more to her total, while senior Avery Huntzinger (Canal Winchester, OH) contributed four service aces.
     Junior Kayla Sedgwick (Richwood, OH) and sophomore Jenna Harrison (Gallipolis, OH) had 16 and 10 digs, respectively, for Rio Grande.
     Madison Boswell led WVU-Tech with eight kills, while Marianna Oyola Rivera had 12 assists and Brooke Presley totaled 13 digs.
     Neveah Wooding had a solo block and two block assists for the Golden Bears.
     Rio Grande closes out its regular season schedule on Friday night when it hosts Midway University for a 7 p.m. first serve.