Despite an efficient 3-1 win over Saint Louis University on Thursday night, the University of Rhode Island women’s volleyball team suffered two consecutive losses against the Billikens on Friday before falling to Fordham University on Tuesday that led to the Rams going under .500 this past week.
The Rams have played their most efficient matches at home this season, with a collective record of 6-5 inside the Keaney Gymnasium. The match on Thursday night was yet another edition of what the Rams can accomplish in the comfort of their own home.
“We’ve started to really defend our home court,” Rhode Island Head Coach Ryan Sullivan said. “If you’re looking at our set wins versus set losses at home versus on the road, we’ve won about 14 sets at home, which is a phenomenal number.”
The Rams showed resolve in their opening victory, clinching the final two sets after dropping the second to the Billikens, and escaping an extended first set 27-25. Third-year Aerin Bowman, second-year Megan Disu and fourth-year Emma Vente led the charge with an offensive barrage. Rhode Island’s .203 kill percentage rose above the .138 percentage from SLU, with Bowman (15), Disu (14) and Vente (7) leading the team in kills.
Vente excelled offensively throughout the week, averaging 7.3 kills per match over the three match stretch.
“It’s been easier on her,” Sullivan said. “She’s only playing about half the time. She’s only playing in the front row, so that allows her to only focus on passing for half the game…I think that she’s proven [what she can do], she was [on] the all-tournament team when we were at home [in September]… [she] shoulders a huge load offensively when we can allow her to.”
Vente was pleased with the effort of the entire squad, and emphasized the collaboration contributions among the team.
“I think just like the team as a whole, we came together,” Vente said. “It was a match that we knew we needed to win, and we knew we had… we just went in and did what we needed to do as a team. I think just our chemistry pulled through for that one.”
However, good times did not last forever for the Rams as it dropped the second match at home 3-2 against the Billikens and the lone road match of the week to Fordham 3-0.
The five-set loss on Friday marked the sixth time the Rams have gone all five with a team this season, and the third time it’s dropped such contests. The middle sets of the contest were rather close, with the Rams taking two of the three middle frames. However, it was a failure to execute on the end sets that sent the Rams down, being outscored 25-15 and 15-7 in the first and fifth sets respectively.
Tuesday’s loss to Fordham was not a performance that Rhode Island wants to remember, as it was swept by the opposing Rams after sweeping Fordham just 20 days prior on their home floor.
“We were pretty disappointed, Marissa [Soistman] and I were, just with the overall team morale at Fordham,” Sullivan said. “It’s tough to play on the road, I get that, but we are very confident in our roster. We’re very confident in what we perform, what we do, what we do in practice. So some of the errors that were made were just non-characteristic of us.”
URI will continue its journey for the first road win of the season against Virginia Commonwealth University this weekend, facing off in a two-match set on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. Both matches can be streamed on ESPN+.