RIPON, Wis. - The Regents (2-7) dropped the first two matches at the Red Hawks Invitational on Friday. Rockford fell in straight sets (25-19, 25-17, 30-28) to host Ripon College (8-4) to begin the day and then lost 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-13) to Luther College (1-9). The difference in the opening match against Ripon was the Red Hawks ability to convert attacks into kills. Although the two teams had a near identical number of attack attempts, 128 to 125, Ripon finished with 43 kills compared to just 28 for Rockford. In their second match of the day, the Regents finished with 31 kills with just 9 errors on 130 total attacks. Stats for Luther were not available at the time this story was published. 


Ripon 3 Rockford 0

• The opening set went back and forth early on with neither team leading by more than three points. 
• However, with Ripon holding an 8-6 advantage, the Red Hawks used a 5-1 run to extend their lead to 13-7. 
• Ripon would push its lead to as many as eight points before the Regents slowly began to chip away late in the set. 
• The Regents went on a 5-1 run of their own, capped off by a Della Crain kill, to pull back within four at 23-19.
• Unfortunately, Ripon scored the final two points to win the opening set 25-19.
• The two teams traded points throughout much of the second set, but it was once again Ripon who was able to string together a few runs at various points.
• With the set tied at 3-3, Ripon scored the next four points to take an early lead. 
• Rockford was able to get back within two a couple of times, but Ripon was eventually able to push its lead up to as many as six points on several occasions.
• Unfortunately, the Red Hawks once again closed the set strong, scoring the final four points to seal the 25-17 win and grab a 2-0 lead. 
• The third set got off to a horrible start with Ripon jumping out to a quick 7-1 lead. 
• The Red Hawks would extend it to as many as seven points before Rockford finally found its rhythm. 
• With Ripon holding a 14-7 advantage, the Regents went on a 10-3 run to tie the match at 17-17. Alexxana Burton led the RU attack with both a kill and a service ace. 
• The two schools would trade points until Ripon held a slim 21-20 lead. 
• Rockford then scored three straight points, led by kills from Alexxana Burton and Nicole Eggers, to take its first lead since the first point of the set. 
• Burton then smashed home a kill to make it 24-22 and give her team a pair of set points. However, Ripon quickly erased both of them with two straight points of its own. 
• Rockford would have two more set points, but unfortunately, the Regents were unable to convert on either. 
• Then with the match tied at 28-28, the Red Hawks scored the final two points to win the third set and the match 3-0.

Luther 3 Rockford 0

• No play-by-play is available

Ripon

• Alexxana Burton led the Regents and tied her season-high with 8 kills. She also added a team-high 12 digs, 1 service ace and a block assist. 
• Nicole Eggers added 7 kills, 1 dig, 1 assist, 1 ace and 1 solo block.
• Casey Sheetz finished with 9 digs and 7 assists. 
• Jessica Witkowski had 12 assists and 6 digs. 

Luther

• Della Crain tied for the team-high with 10 kills.
• Melody Moreno also tied for the team-high with 10 kills and added 9 digs and 1 block assist. 
• Jasmine Landberg led the Regents with 17 digs.
• Jessica Witkowski tallied a double-double with 23 assists and 10 digs. 
• Brynn Atwell added 13 digs and 2 aces. 

The RU women's volleyball team returns to the court for a pair of matches on Saturday, September 18 in Ripon, Wisconsin. Rockford will play Concordia Chicago at 10 AM followed by UW-River Falls at noon.