Volleyball wrapped up their season this past weekend with matches against the George Mason Patriots and the George Washington Colonials, securing a victory in one and dropping the other.
The Rams were striving to earn a spot in the Atlantic 10 Championships, which will be hosted in Kingston. They did not make it, although they did put up a battle.
On Friday, Nov. 15, Rhody Volleyball played at George Mason. Rhody effortlessly took the first set by a score of 25-13 and looked to keep up their mojo.
The women fell apart in the next set, giving the set win to Mason with a score of 25-16.
The Rams gave Mason more of a battle in the third set, but Mason claimed the set win 25-20. The Rams then regained their energy in the fourth set, winning 25-15. It was then smooth sailing from there, as the Rams claimed the last set 15-8. The Rams won 3-2 in a five-set match.
In total, the Rams had more kills, digs, aces and a higher side percentage than the Patriots. The Rams outpaced George Mason 57-58 kills, 52-47 digs, 12-4 aces and a 62-53 side percentage. Mason had more blocks than Rhody 14-9.
Junior Claire Chaplinsky matched her career-high in kills, also having a game-high with 16.
Chaplinsky was not the only player who had a good night. Junior Annie Ell also matched her career-best game, serving six aces in one night, and double-doubled for the fifth time this season with 35 assists and ten digs.
Sophomore Mariah Paulette lead the team in blocks having seven blocks, with two of them being solos. Natale Zanellato has the second most kills for the team, putting down 15. On the defensive side, sophomore Ella Ratzloft led the Rams had 25 digs, with freshman Claire Wagner following behind with 13 digs.
The Rams moved up to 8-17 overall and 3-10 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Rhody then traveled to George Washington on Saturday, Nov. 16 to play their final game.
Rhody put up a fight in all three matches and kept it close, however, they fell 3-0 in straight sets. In the first set, they fell 25-20, the second 25-18 and the third 20-19.
In the first set, George Washington led the whole time, with Rhody coming close to the lead a few times.
The second set Rhody led 8-5, until GW scored four straight points, giving them a 9-8 lead. Rhody tied the score 9-9 with GW responding back, gaining five more points 14-8. From there on out, GW took the set.
In the third set, there were four lead changes and five ties between the teams when GW took the set and the game win by six points.
This was senior Hazel Brown’s last game of her collegiate career, and she finished with a .615 attack percentage and a single-match high for her career in her last game. Brown and redshirt junior Natale Zanellato both recorded nine kills on the night, with Chaplinsky one behind with eight kills and sophomore Gabrielle Shilling adding six.
Ratzloff got 14 digs, finishing up the season with 485 digs total over the 95 sets she played this season. This is the second-best single-season total in URI history, with the record set by Leslie Wiekamp in 2006 with 539 over 107 sets.
The Rams will not advance to the Atlantic 10 championships, and will have a new coaching staff when they return in the fall.