The University of Rhode Island women’s volleyball team went on the road to St. Louis, Missouri, to take on Saint Louis University in a weekend series, where the Rams went 0-2 to stay winless in Atlantic 10 Conference play.
With URI having a tough schedule these past few weeks playing higher-ranked teams within the conference, taking on the No. 8 team was the Rams’ most promising chance to get back in the win column in a while.
On Friday, the Billikens would start the first set with a pair of runs, going on a 4-0 and 6-0 run. However, Rhody would come back swinging with a 5-0 run of their own to tie it at 10-10 and then closed the set strong with eight straight points courtesy of fourth-year Aerin Bowman and second-year Havyn Rolle to win the set 25-18.
Unfortunately for the visiting Rams, this would be their last taste of victory on Friday, as Saint Louis would get an early 9-3 lead in the second set and close it out with another 4-0 run to win 25-18. The Billikens put up 17 kills with just five errors in the third to win 25-18 once again.
The Rams would put up a fight to start the fourth set, as third-year Sydney Houchens helped keep the score at 11-11. Nonetheless, it wasn’t enough to fight off the Billikens, as they would go on a 6-0 run, hitting 50% to win the set 25-17 and take the first match of the series, 3-1.
“The outcome was a little disappointing after the good start,” URI Head Coach Ryan Sullivan said. “We’ve proven that we can play with any team in our conference, but we just have to learn how to win for three sets.”
In Saturday’s game, the first set was back-and-forth from the start, as neither team would lead by more than two points with eight lead changes over the course of the set. A kill from Rolle and a block from third-year Chloe Abuto would give the Rams a 25-24 set point, but three consecutive kills from Saint Louis would give them the edge with a 27-25 first-set victory.
Once again in the second, the score ended up being 19-19, but a 5-2 run late in the set would help the Billikens close it out 25-23. Using the momentum from the previous set, Saint Louis dominated on its home court with the help of eight kills from first-year Tamia Maddox in the third set to close out the match in a clean 3-0 sweep.
As the losing streak continues for Rhode Island, Sullivan believes the team’s peak is still in the near future and is confident in the upcoming games this weekend.
“We are still fighting through a lot of adversity,” Sullivan said. “We still feel like we haven’t peaked as a team, so hopefully this weekend we will see the results go our way.”
With URI still on the hunt to find its first conference win of the season, it’ll travel to Pittsburgh to take on Duquesne in a weekend series on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. Both games will stream on ESPN+.
The post Pair of defeats stretch volleyball’s losing skid to 10 first appeared on The Good 5¢ Cigar.
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