LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ – Freshman Morgan Romano (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) recorded her team-leading fifth double-double of the season thanks to a 12-kill, 13-dig performance to lead the Rider University volleyball team past visiting Iona, 3-0, on Saturday afternoon in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) action inside Alumni Gymnasium.
 
The Broncs (4-8, 1-0 MAAC) defeated the Gaels (0-11, 0-1 MAAC) by scores of 25-23, 25-19 and 25-18.
 
Rider broke a 23-23 tie in the opening frame with back-to-back points capped by a block from Ali Ward (West Chester, PA/West Chester East) to take a 1-0 edge. The hosts would jump out to early leads in both the second and third sets en route to the conference victory.
 
Offensively, Romano paced the Rider attack with 12 kills and a .321 hitting percentage, while Alexa Shello (Long Valley, NJ/West Morris Central) chipped in nine kills and Ward had eight kills of her own.
 
In the middle, sophomore Anilee Sher (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill) had 33 assists, nine digs and four kills.
 
Defensively, Rachelle Runyon (Aliso Viejo, CA/Aliso Niguel) continued her steady play for the Broncs with a match-high 23 digs.  
 
NOTES & QUOTES
"I think the first 10 minutes of set one we seemed a little bit out of sync. The energy was getting the best of us, but it felt good to be here. We've been on the road for three weeks and we finally had a match and were able to get comfortable on our home floor." – Rider Head Coach Jeff Rotondo
 
"It felt good to open conference play like this. We executed our game plan today. The fact that we executed really well speaks volumes to this team and their preparation." – Rotondo
 
- Rider has now won six of the last seven meetings against the Gaels.
- As a team, the Broncs had 43 kills, 63 digs, six blocks and four service aces.
- Rider took advantage of 16 Iona attack errors and nine Gael service errors.
- On Monday, Morgan Romano was named the MAAC Rookie of the Week and Rachelle Runyon was tabbed as the MAAC Libero of the Week.
- The Broncs have now won back-to-back matches.
 
BRONCS BY THE NUMBERS
- Romano has recorded 11 or more kills in 11 of her 12 matches so far this season. She has a MAAC-best 184 digs this season. She also added four service aces for Rider. It was second match in a row with four or more aces.
- Runyon registered 20 or more digs for the second match in a row and the sixth time this year. She moved into eighth-place in program history with 1,262 career digs. She is 30 digs away from moving into seventh-place in the Rider record books.
- Freshman Alicia Iafrate tied a career-high with eight digs. It was her second match of the year with eight digs.
- Morgan Koch and Evelyn Shanefield each contributed five kills apiece for Rider.
 
UP NEXT
Rider closes out the opening weekend of MAAC play with a road showdown against Manhattan on Sunday, September 22, at 1:00 pm inside Draddy Gymnasium. The Broncs have won five straight matches versus the Jaspers thanks to sweeping the regular-season series in each of the last two years.