Women’s Volleyball Sweeps Keene St. to Open Campaign

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The Rivier women's volleyball team came away with a non-conference sweep over Keene St. in the opening match of the Springfield College Invitational on Friday night at Blake Arena to begin the season 1-0.

Trailing by one point in the first set, Hannah Raab went on a serving run which began with three consecutive aces and was capped off by two Lily Sills kills to put the Raiders up 12-7 and force the Owls into a timeout. The lead would remain intact throughout the rest of the opening frame as Sills tallied four kills at a .444 percentage to boost Rivier to a 25-22 win.

Raab once again had the hot hand from the service line early in the second set when she added two aces following a Sam Driend kill to put the Raiders up 3-0. With the Raiders leading 14-10 later in the set, Keene St. went on a 6-0 run with Reagan Fleming's ace giving the Owls a 16-14 lead, forcing Rivier into a timeout. After siding out on a Sills and Ali Rivera block on the next rally, Rivier would piece together a four-point swing of its own to regain an 18-16 lead and force the Owls to call their first timeout of the set. Keene St. would tie the score twice more throughout the remainder of the frame before the Raiders would close things out, 27-25.

After falling behind by as large of a margin as 16-10 in the third set, Rivier slowly worked its way back into contention using timely kills and help from Driend's serve. Driend tallied four aces as part of a 7-0 run which put the Raiders up 23-21 in the late-going, and a kill by Brynn Roche on match point sealed the first victory of the season.

Ryan Hicks dished out 29 assists with Driend and Sills recording 10 kills apiece. Ali Rivera (7), Callie Nanos (3), and Roche (3) each got in the mix offensively. Sofia Pawlusik's 16 digs led the defensive effort with Rivera trailing her with 10. Sills came up big with one solo block and three block assists in the triumph.

The Raiders return to the court at Blake Arena for the final day of the tournament on Saturday with two matches on tap. First, the Raiders will open the day with a 10:30 a.m. showdown against the hosts, Springfield, before taking on Skidmore at 1:00 p.m. to round out the opening weekend.