LISLE, Ill. -- The Rockford University women's volleyball team lost to NACC conference opponent Benedictine University 3-1 on Wednesday evening. Set scores were 25-19, 25-17, 20-25, 25-14.
Amelia Rodriguez led the way for RU offensively with 11 kills, while
Leila Cooks racked up 18 assists.
On the defensive side,
Ashley Miller had a team-high 19 digs, and
Jalyn Rhodes had five blocks.
RU had a nice start to the game, jumping out to a 7-5 lead. BU then responded with six unanswered to make it 11-7. The Regents did not go away, as a kill from
Ashley Mersch kept them around to trail by only three, 22-19. However, a kill from the Eagles and two attack errors from the Regents allowed the Eagles to score three straight to win the first set.
BU got off to a powerful start in the second set, taking a 14-2 lead. The Regents, however, did not give up and went on an 11-3 run to trim the deficit all the way down to four at 17-13 as the run ended with a kill from Mersch. After the comeback efforts from the Regents in the second set, BU responded with a 6-0 run and ended up winning the second set to make it 2-0 in the match.
RU won the third set in large part due to an 8-0 run to take a 16-7 lead. The Eagles also had their comeback efforts fall short, as they went on a 9-3 run to trim the Regents' lead to three at 20-17. RU was able to hold on with two attack errors and two kills from Rodriguez and one kill from Miller in the ending stretch of the third set for the Regents to hang on.
BU was then able to close the Regents out with a strong finish, as the Eagles had the lead the entire fourth set to roll to a 25-14 victory to win the match.
The Regents will return to action on Friday, Oct. 24, with a 7 p.m. CDT non-conference match at the Seaver Center against Lawrence University.
