Campbellsville sweeps past Rio men

Rio Grande Sports Information
     CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Fifth-ranked Campbellsville University survived a hard fought first set, before rolling in set two and rallying in set three for a 3-0 win over the University of Rio Grande, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men's volleyball action at Gosser Gymnasium.
     The Tigers notched the victory by scores of 28-26, 25-16, 25-20 and pushed their record to 25-2 overall and 13-2 in the RSC.
     Rio Grande, which suffered a third straight loss, dropped to 13-12 overall and 5-9 in league play.
     The RedStorm found themselves one point away from taking the opening set, grabbing a 24-23 lead following a kill by senior Cam Griffith (Columbus, OH), but the Tigers rallied to finish the period on a 5-2 run and grab an early match lead.
     Campbellsville never trailed in the second set, jumping to a 13-4 cushion out of the gate and leading by no less than eight points for the remainder of the stanza.
     Rio Grande jumped to a 5-1 lead in set three, but the Tigers rebounded to forge ties at 6-, 7- and 8-all before a 6-1 run produced a 14-9 advantage - an advantage that the hosts would not relinquish.
     Campbellsville finished with a .317 attack percentage, tallying 40 kills and 14 errors over 82 swings.
     Pedro Zavatini and Savvas Christou finished with 11 and 10 kills, respectively, in the winning effort, while Alonzo Vega had 38 assists and three service aces.
     Andrew Ovalle had 12 digs, while Fernando Rodriguez had six block assists and Ayoub Hamadache recorded five block assists.
     Rio Grande got 11 kills from junior Otavio Tonoli (Campinas, Brazil) and 10 kills from sophomore Camilo Murillo (Cali, Colombia). Tonoli also had a team-best seven digs and four block assists.
     Senior Mitch Bartecki (Valparaiso, IN) led the RedStorm with 28 assists, while senior Josef Iten (Sacramento, CA) also had four block assists.
     Rio Grande finished with 35 kills and 23 errors in 91 attacks for a .132 swing percentage.
     The RedStom return to action on Friday night against St. Mary-of-the-Woods when they open a two-game homestand to close out the regular season schedule.
     First serve is set for 6 p.m.