THE BASICS
Fight In the Fort Schedule
Thursday, Sept. 11
5 p.m. - Rhode Island vs. Missouri | Live Stats

Friday, Sept. 12
12 p.m. - Rhode Island at TCU | Watch: ESPN+ | Live Stats
5 p.m. - Rhode Island vs. Wyoming | Live Stats
* All times EST

RHODE ISLAND VS. FIGHT IN THE FORT COMPETITION - SERIES NOTES

• Two of the three teams Rhode Island will face this week are ranked nationally, as Missouri is No. 23 and host TCU is No. 15. 
• Rhode Island will be facing Missouri and Texas Christian for the first time in program history this week.
• The Rams have split two previous matches with Wyoming, but the teams have not met since 1996.
• Wyoming swept Rhody 15-6, 15-12, 15-10 at the McDonald's Classic in 1986.
• Ten years later, Rhode Island beat Wyoming 3-1 (13-15, 15-3, 15-13, 15-8) in the season opener at the Long Beach State Classic in California.  
• Missouri enters the tournament 3-2, with wins over James Madison, Florida Gulf Coast and Arkansas State.
• In its most recent match, the Tigers fell to No. 5 Stanford, 3-1.
• Missouri is coming off a run to the Sweet 16 in 2024 under second-year head coach Dawn Sullivan. 
• TCU was 3-1 entering the week and had a match Wednesday night against No. 8 Texas A&M.
• Each of the Horned Frogs first five matches have been against Top 25 competition.
• They fell 3-1 to No. 3 Pitt, beat defending national champion and No. 5 Penn State 3-2, and won twice against No. 19 UCLA, 3-0 and 3-1.
• TCU's Sarah Sylvester is the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week after recording 15 blocks while leading the Horned Frogs to wins over Penn State and UCLA (twic).
• Wyoming comes into the tournament with a 2-3 record and trying to snap a three-match skid.
• In 2024, the team was 17-13 and reached the third round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship before falling to Arizona.

RAMS STRONG AT THE NET 

• Rhode Island's defense has recorded 57 blocks through its first 20 sets of the season, an average of 2.85 per set.
• The opposition is averaging 1.65 blocks per set against URI.
• The 2.85 blocks per set ranks 25th in the country and first in the Atlantic 10.
• It is a continuation of a focus head coach Ryan Sullivan brought to the Rams last year, when URI finished the season 33rd in the country and first in the Atlantic 10 with 294.5 blocks.
• The 294.5 blocks set a program record for the rally-point era (post 2001) for Rhode Island.
• It was the fourth-highest total in program history.
• URI had 372.0 in 1996, 342.0 in 1995 and 312.5 in 1997.  
• Junior Chloe Abuto leads the team with 23 blocks, while senior Aerin Bowman and sophomore Havyn Rolle have 17.0 blocks each.