Rhode Island Starters (3-14, 0-5 Atlantic 10)
Disu, Owens, Shilling, Passerello, Blahut, Bowman, Blaney (L)

Fordham Starters (11-4, 2-3 Atlantic 10)
Moody, Talabong, Brown, Jenkins, Holderied, Woodrow, Lipski  (L)

How It Happened
Fordham dominated the first two sets and then used a late surge in the third set to put the match away in a 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-19) win over Rhode Island Wednesday evening.

Set One - Fordham 25, Rhode Island 19
Fordham hit .275 as a team in the first set, getting 13 kills with just two errors. Whitley Moody, Zoe Talabong, Audrey Brown and Nailah Jenkins all had three kills as setter Whitney Woodrow orchestrated a balanced, efficient attack. Rhody, by contrast, hit .000 as a team, recording 10 kills and 10 attack errors.

Set Two – Fordham 25, Rhode Island 20
Fordham jumped out to a 10-3 lead behind six early kills from Audrey Brown. Rhode Island battled back to close within two points at 13-11 with an 8-3 run that included three consecutive aces from Emma Vente. Fordham got the lead back up to six points on two occasions, but URI kept battling. An ace from Madi Disu pulled URI within three at 21-18, but that was as close as it got. There were no lead changes or ties in the set.

Set Three - Fordham 25, Rhode Island 19
Game play changed in the third set, as the teams were tied at every point up through the first seven points of the set. Rhode Island took its first lead of the night when back-to-back kills from Chloe Abuto and Madi Disu put URI up 9-7. Fordham scored the next two points to tie it again, and the teams were not separated by more than a point again until a Fordham attack error and an Emma Vente kill made it 14-12 for Rhody. While the lead never exceeded two points, Rhode Island held the lead until Fordham tied it at 17-17. From there, Fordham closed out the match with an 8-2 run.

Inside the Box Score

• After there were just four ties and no lead changes in the first two sets combined, the third set had 13 ties and eight lead changes.
• Sophomore Hope Passerello had a double-double with 17 assists and 10 digs.
• Graduate student Gabrielle Shilling led the offense with six kills and had a .400 attack percentage.
• Junior Hannah Blaney had a team high 21 digs.

Up Next
Rhode Island is home for two matches against Davidson this weekend. The first is Saturday at 4 p.m. and the latter is Sunday at 12 p.m.