Rhode Island Starters (3-9)
Powers, Disu, Shilling, Passerello, Blahut, Bowman, Blaney (L)

Stonehill Starters (0-13)
Berardino, Hanley, McCloskey, Mihelich, MacKellar, Watson, DeLorenzo (L)

How it Happened
Madi Disu's first career double-double helped lift Rhode Island Volleyball to a three-set sweep of Stonehill on Saturday evening in Keaney Gymnasium. The victory over the Skyhawks marked not only the Rams' first sweep of the year, but also the program's first time achieving the feat since doing so against LIU on Sept. 10, 2022. 

Set One - Rhode Island 25, Stonehill 20
Though the Skyhawks jumped out to a 6-1 lead to begin the match, Rhode Island was able to crawl out of the early deficit and eventually tied the score up at 14-14, courtesy of a Madi Disu kill. The teams continued to fight over points down the stretch until a pair of Stonehill attack errors and a service ace by Ryleigh Powers put the Rams ahead 22-19. Rhody maintained momentum from there, picking up an additional service ace by Hannah Blaney and a pair of kills from Aerie Bowman and Disu to put the first set away. 

Set Two - Rhode Island 25, Stonehill 17 
Both sides fought to establish control at the start, with Rhode Island once again trailing out of the gate. Facing a 10-7 deficit, the Rams called time out to recalibrate and did just that, going on a 7-0 run that propelled them to a 14-11 advantage. While the Skyhawks did stop the run with a kill by Emma Graves, Rhody inched its way towards set point. A string of four unanswered points, fueled mostly by Stonehill errors, allowed the home team to reach match point. 

Set Three - Rhode Island 25, Stonehill 13
Rhode Island used an early 8-0 run, bolstered by a trio of kills from Bowman, to fuel its third-set victory. The outburst put the Rams ahead at 13-8 and though Stonehill successfully ended the scoring run, the visiting team was unable to recover. The Rams rolled their way to victory, allowing the Skyhawks to score just five additional points before ending the night when Samantha Blahut smacked down her seventh and final kill. 

Inside the Box Score

• Freshman Madi Disu recorded her first career double-double, racking up 10 kills and a career-best 11 digs. 
• Redshirt junior Samantha Blahut had a banner night, hitting a perfect 1.000 with seven kills. She also chipped in a pair of service aces and as many digs. 
• Junior Hannah Blaney tallied a game-high 14 digs for her sixth double-digit effort of the season.
• Rhode Island had a great night at the net, hitting a season-best .347. It's the first time this year the Rams have hit over .300. 
• Redshirt sophomore Hope Passarello accrued a game-best 33 assists and hit .455 with six kills off of 11 attempts. 
• Rhody picked up 10 service aces, while the Skyhawks posted just three. 

What's Next
Rhode Island will begin its conference slate next weekend at George Mason. The Rams and the Patriots will face off at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22 before concluding the action with a Noon game on Saturday. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+.