LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ– The Rider University volleyball team won sets three and four Sunday afternoon, but ultimately fell in five sets to Canisius, 25-15, 25-20, 17-25, 18-25, 17-15. The Broncs and Golden Griffins both sit at 5-11 overall on the season. The Broncs are now 4-4 in MAAC play, while the Golden Griffins sit at 3-5.
 
The opening two sets were all Canisius. With Rider up 5-3, the Golden Griffins took the lead with a 7-1 run. Then leading 10-8, Canisius pulled away with an 8-1 run. With Rider leading 4-2 in set two, Canisius scored six-straight points. Later up 12-9, Canisius added a 5-0 run, and the Broncs would not recover.
 
Out of the break, Rider took control. Leading 9-7, Rider went on an 8-1 run, including aces from Ryley Frye (New Hope, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong[UTEP]) and Paige Giehtbrock (Clarkston, MI/Clarkston). Leading 21-17, Giehtbrock had three kills during a 4-0 run that closed out the set.
 
With Rider up 7-4 in set four, Canisius went on a 7-0 run. Down 13-10, Rider responded with a 5-0 run, including a pair of aces by Frye. Up 18-16, Rider pulled away with another 5-0 run, this time capped by an ace from Carly Zimmet (Purcellville, VA/Loudoun Valley).
 
The fifth set featured 10 ties and five lead changes. Down 9-7, Rider got a 4-0 run, including a Frye ace. Rider would lead 15-14, but the Golden Griffins scored three-straight points for the final lead change of the match, giving Canisius the victory.

QUOTES & NOTES
"This one's hard to gauge because we were so bad in sets one and two, then we were able to find our energy after a kind of tense talk in the locker room. The fifth set, there's just too many red flags, too many errors."
 
"We did scrap really well. A lot of them did a really good job with keeping balls off the floor. We wanted to find a lineup that was going to gel and create a good energy and we seemed to have found that in the third set." – Head Coach Jeff Rotondo
 
"Our talk after losing the first two sets, we had nothing to lose. We just put it all out there, try our best, and that's what we did. We fell behind, but for the last three sets, we played our hardest. It was scrappy, once we put our bodies on the floor, a touch is a touch."
 
"I was reading the block, that was set up really well, especially by Rohde and Gabby. It was easy to read the hitters." – Sophomore Libero Keegan O'Connor
 
- Canisius extends its lead in the all-time series to 33-15.
- For the sixth time this season, Frye and Makenna Mason (Hilton Head Island, SC/Hilton Head) reached double digit assists in the same match with 25 and 18 respectively.
- Frye completed her fourth double-double of the season with 17 digs.
- Giehtbrock had a career-high 19 kills, her fourth match in double figures this year, and added a career-high 21 digs for her first career double-double.
- Tori Schrader (Grantville, PA/Lower Dauphin) added 16 kills, her second match with double-digits this season.
- Keegan O'Connor (Weatherford, TX/Weatherford) had a team-high 22 digs, her 11^th match this season in double digits.
 
BRONCS BY THE NUMBERS
- The Broncs hit .162 in the match, while the Golden Griffins hit .179.
- Rider had 58 kills in the match to 55 for Canisius.
- Canisius had an 89-87 edge in digs.
- The Broncs had a 9-4 advantage in blocks, and 8-4 edge in aces.
- In addition to Giehtbrock and Schrader, Molly Rohde (Hortonville, WI/Hortonville) finished with eight kills.
- Frye had four aces in the match.
- Rohde had six blocks.

UP NEXT
The Broncs hit the road to begin a five-match road trip Saturday at Fairfield. First serve is at 1 p.m.