Rio Grande Sports Information
PARKVILLE, Mo. - The University of Rio Grande men's volleyball team closed out its season-opening weekend with losses to Viterbo (Wis.) and Morningside (Iowa) in Saturday's final round of the Pirate Invitational hosted by Park University at the at the Breckon Sports Center.
The RedStorm dropped a 25-23, 25-21, 19-25, 25-19 decision to Viterbo before falling to Morningside 25-23, 25-15, 25-23 in the finale.
Rio Grande finished the day at 1-3 with the losses, while Viterbo improved to 2-1 and Morningside moved to 3-1.
In the opener against Viterbo, the RedStorm rallied from a 18-10 deficit in set one to take a 23-22 lead, but the V-Hawks responded with the final three winners of the set to take an early match lead.
Rio never led in set two, but extended the match by pulling away down the stretch to win the third period.
The RedStorm trailed just 17-16 in set four following a kill by senior Caden Donaldson (Jackson, OH), but the V-Hawks nailed down the match win by scoring eight of the final 11 points.
Donaldson led Rio with 16 kills, while junior Sam Kaylor (Lewis Center, OH) and freshman Otavio Tonoli (Campinas, Brazil) recorded 10 kills each.
Sophomore Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) had 41 assists and 11 digs in the loss, while junior Seth Mohr (Canton, OH) had 21 digs and two service aces and junior Ethan Johnson (Hamilton, OH) had four solo blocks and two block assists.
Guven Gedikoglu led Viterbo with 12 kills, while Logan Amdur tallied 36 assists and Juan Banda had 24 digs.
Max Dugan also had 10 digs for the V-Hawks.
Morningside did the bulk of its damage late in each of the three sets.
Rio had a 15-9 lead in set one, but the Mustangs went on a 9-2 run to take an 18-17 advantage. The RedStorm tied the set at 19-all and 20-all before regaining a 21-20 lead, but Morningside scored five of the final seven winners to grab the early match lead.
Rio trailed throughout most of set two but was still within 18-14 after a kill by Donaldson, but the Mustangs reeled off seven of the final eight points to grab a commanding lead.
The RedStorm jumped to a 5-0 lead in set three and still led 20-16 after a kill by junior Tyler Miller-Bross (Loveland, OH), but were outscored 9-3 the rest of the way to finish off the straight sets loss.
Donaldson had 12 kills in the loss for Rio, while Bartecki and Mohr had 24 assists and 11 digs, respectively.
Morningside, which finished with a .337 attack percentage, got 12 kills from Isaiah Baynes and 10 kills from Natan Alves. Alves also had four service aces.
Jacob DePauw added 32 assists for the Mustangs, while Owen Anderson had nine digs and three service aces and Tharen Cox finished with seven block assists.
Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday night at Bluefield (Va.) University.
First serve is set for 7 p.m.
