NEW ROCHELLE, NY– The Rider University volleyball team won their seventh-straight match Sunday afternoon, defeating Iona 23-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-27, 15-11. The Broncs improve to 14-15 on the season and 13-3 in MAAC play, while the Gaels fall to 9-19 on the year, including a 7-9 mark in league matches.
 
With Rider holding an 11-10 lead midway through the opening set, Iona went on a 7-0 run, and later extending the lead to as large as 21-13. Rider then clawed back into the set with a 10-3 run, including staving off a pair of set points, but the Gaels would find a way to close out the set with a kill.
 
Close throughout in the second, the Broncs made their move late. Trailing 18-17, Rider scored four-straight points, including a Ryley Frye (New Hope, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong[UTEP]) ace to go ahead 21-18. Down 24-21, Iona scored three-straight points to even the set, but a combo block by Carley McAleavey (Smithtown, NY/Smithtown West) and Rylah Robinson (Fairfax, VA/Robinson) followed by an ace from Kiannisha Santiago (San Juan, PR/Hudson Catholic (NJ)) evened the match at one set each.
 
Rider carried the momentum into the third set, scoring the first six points of the set, including two kills and a block by Santiago. The Rider lead never fell below four points in the set.
 
Trailing 8-6 in the fourth, Iona took the lead in the set with a 5-0 run, and would extend the lead to 18-11. Rider then outscored the Gaels 13-5, capped by a 4-0 run to give Rider match point at 24-23. Iona would recover scoring four of the next five points to force a set five.
 
The Gaels were dominant early in the fifth, building a quick 7-1 advantage. Trailing 11-7, Rider took over scoring the match's final eight points, including a pair of aces by Keegan O'Connor (Weatherford, TX/Weatherford) to complete the fifth-set comeback and win the match.

QUOTES & NOTES
"Tough victory today, and a real courageous performance down 8-2 in the fifth. Credit to Iona who played really well today and took us out of our systems a lot. Winning on the road when we were not playing clean is a huge testament to our team in not giving up.
Huge performance from Keegan down the stretch to serve out the match aggressively, and our attackers to not back off swings late in that fifth set." – Head Coach Jeff Rotondo
 
- Rider completes the regular season sweep and trims the Iona lead in the all-time series to 30-21.
- Paige Giehtbrock (Clarkston, MI/Clarkston) led the Broncs with 16 kills and 16 digs for her eighth double-double of the season.
- Frye led the Broncs with 28 assists, including her 1,000^th career assist at Rider late in the second set.
- Makenna Mason (Hilton Head Island, SC/Hilton Head) added 16 assists for her 25^th match with double digits this year. Frye reached double figures for the 23^rd time this season.
- O'Connor had double-digit digs for the 17^th time this season, finishing with 11 in the match.
- Santiago had 15 kills in the match to reach double figures for the 14^th time this year.
 
BRONCS BY THE NUMBERS
- The Broncs hit .284 in the match, while the Gaels hit .176.
- Rider had 63 kills in the match to 60 for Iona.
- The Gaels had a 77-69 edge in digs and an 13-9 advantage in aces.
- Molly Rohde (Hortonville, WI/Hortonville) finished with eight blocks as the Broncs finished with 10 as a team.

UP NEXT
The Broncs return home for the final weekend of the regular season, beginning with Fairfield on Saturday at 1 p.m.