Rio men outlast Mighty Oaks

Rio Grande Sports Information
     OAKLAND CITY, Ind. - The University of Rio Grande coughed up an early commanding lead before rallying late in the fifth and deciding set for a 3-2 triumph over Oakland City University, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men's volleyball action at the Johnson Center.
     The RedStorm improved to 11-9 overall and 3-6 in league play with the 25-22, 25-23, 16-25, 17-25, 15-12 victory.
     Oakland City slipped to 14-6 overall and 5-3 in the RSC with the loss.
     The Mighty Oaks stormed back after putting themselves in an early hole, hitting .458 over sets three and four (26 kills, four errors, 48 attacks), to force the fifth and deciding stanza.
     Rio Grande raced out to a 4-2 lead in set five, but Oakland City hung tough and forced five ties before evenutally grabbing a 9-8 advantage after an attack error by the RedStorm.
     Ties at 9-all and 10-all followed before a kill by junior Otavio Tonoli (Campinas, Brazil) put Rio in front at 11-10 and gave the RedStorm a lead it would never relinquish.
     A kill by senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH) closed out the match.
     Rio Grande finished the match with 55 kills and 29 errors over 143 swings for a .182 attack percentage.
     Tonoli led the RedStorm with 16 kills, while sophomore Daniel Rivas (Valle Del Cauca, Colombia) totaled 15 kills and 11 digs and senior Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) tallied 40 assists and 14 digs.
     Sophomore Thomas Lhoste (Courbevoie, France) added 12 digs to the winning effort, while Griffith, Bartecki and senior Josef Iten (Sacramento, CA) all had three block assists.
     Tomasz Swiderski had 20 kills and four service aces and Pepen added 13 kills of his own for Oakland City, which finished with a .252 attack percentage (51 kills, 17 errors, 135 swings.
     Danilo Negrao had 41 assists and 13 digs in a losing cause, while Kevin Pavione totaled 11 block assists.
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday night when it hosts Midway University.
     First serve is set for 7 p.m. at the Newt Oliver Arena.