Moon Township, Pa. – The RMU volleyball team opened a five-match road trip Saturday, dropping a 3-0 decision to Oakland in Rochester, Mich., at the Athletics Center O'Rena. The Colonials slipped to 9-14 (.391) overall during the 2021 campaign, including 2-9 (.182) in the Horizon League.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
RMU fell behind in the opening set, 7-2 and 15-9, before using a 9-3 surge to knot the score, 18-18. The Colonials got a service ace from junior
Allena Carmody and kills from outside hitters
Alyssa Hudak and
Alyson Londot during the run. Freshman
Ally Christman pushed RMU in front, 22-21, with a service ace, forcing the Golden Grizzlies (13-9 / 7-4 #HLVB) to call a timeout. Out of the break, Jessia Riedl tied the set, 22-22, with a kill, which ignited a 4-0 spurt to give Oakland a 25-22 victory in the first set. The Golden Grizzlies also got kills from Madison Ross and Patti Cesarini during the deciding run. Reidl garnered match-high honors in kills for Oakland, posting 12 to go along with a .304 hitting percentage, while Brittany Welch added 11 kills and a .421 attack percentage. The Golden Grizzlies completed the sweep by earning a 25-14 win in set two and a 25-19 triumph in the third set.
1K
Senior
Nikolette Zanolli made history for the Colonials in the opening set against the Golden Grizzlies. Thanks to her third dig of the set, Zanolli became the 13th student-athlete in program history to eclipse 1,000 career digs. She tied for team-high honors for RMU in the category Saturday against Oakland with seven, joining freshman
Jaidan Hockman and Carmody. Zanolli now owns 1,004 career digs in 276 sets, an average of 3.54 per set. She is the first RMU student-athlete to eclipse the 1,000-dig plateau since Taylor Lord (2015-18) turned the trick during the 2017 campaign.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
Hudak led the Colonials Saturday @ Oakland with six kills and a .357 hitting percentage while also adding a pair of digs. Middle blocker
Emma Brown and outside hitter
Abby Ryan each finished with five kills for RMU, with Brown finishing with eight total attempts and failing to record an attack error to compile a team-high .625 hitting percentage. Freshman
Ashleigh Wallin registered 17 assists and four digs, while Christman and Carmody each posted a pair of service aces.
UP NEXT
RMU continues its five-match road trip Sunday with a 2:00 p.m. first serve against Cleveland State at Woodling Gymnasium.
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