College Volleyball
Loyola University Maryland 3, Rider University 0
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Match
LAWRENCEVILLE--The Rider University volleyball team lost its fifth match in a row, falling to Loyola University Maryland 3-0 on Saturday in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match.
The Greyhounds won 25-20, 25-22, 25-21 in a match that featured 22 ties and 11 lead changes.
"The frustration level is pretty high," said head coach Christopher Feliciano. "We had a really good week of practice, great preparation and it didn't happen. You can't make any excuses, we have to take ownership of what we didn't get done."
For Rider (4-16, 2-6 MAAC), freshman Ashlee Amatulli (Menifee, Calif./Temecula Valley) had 20 assists and 10 digs.
Also for the Broncs, sophomore Bridget Sheerin (Oak Lawn, Ill./Marist) had 13 kills, eight assists and seven digs, making only one error, with freshman Shelbie Stannard (Alvin, Texas/Alvin) adding 16 digs and freshman Jaclyn Webber (Anaheim, Calif./Canyon) compiled 14 digs and eight kills.
"Ashlee and Bridget are probably our two most consistent players," Feliciano said. "Ashlee, I know what I'm getting every day. And Bridget, she is up, she is positive and works very hard."
Loyola out-hit Rider .204 to .153.
"You can sit here and say, we're young, we're improving, we're rebuilding, but it is the first time in a long time where I didn't see us fight," Feliciano said. "We have to push through mentally and we didn't do that."
Loyola leads the all-time series with Rider 25-7. The last time Rider defeated the Greyhounds was during the 2001 season. The teams meet again in Maryland on November 5.
"Loyola is a solid team with a good coach," Feliciano said. "You never want to take anything away from a team winning. They made fewer errors than us but for the most part, we did this to ourselves. We had trouble serving to spots and didn't pass the ball today. I haven't seen us play like this in a long time."
Rider travels to Western, New York to face Canisius and Niagara in a pair of MAAC matches on October 15 and 16.
"We missed a golden opportunity today and we now have to take a tough road trip and see what we can do," said Feliciano. "Today was a good learning experience for the growth of the team. Competitive is not good enough for us, the players want to win."
-RU-
