University of Rhode Island

Rhode Island Starters
Lalli, Houchens, Johnson, Abuto, Richter, Sawyer, Henry (L)

Lafayette Starters
Wilson, Mbeche-Odhiambo, Groger, Puig, Aksu, Kamphuis, Chu (L)

How it Happened
Lafayette (5-3) rallied from a two-set deficit to shock Rhode Island (3-4) 24-26, 17-25, 25-20, 26-24, 15-5 Saturday night.

Set One - Rhode Island 26, Lafayette 24
Rhode Island rallied from a nine-point deficit to pull out the opening set. Down 13-4, the Rams slowly began chipping away. The Rams trailed 20-15, but a 6-1 run that included two Cara Richter aces pulled Rhody even. The teams were then tied at 22-22, 23-23 and 24-24 before a Jahan Lalli dink kill and a block by Chloe Abuto ad Emily Sawyer completed the comeback and gave Rhody the set.

Set Two - Rhode Island 25, Lafayette 17
Cara Richter was on fire throughout the set. She had seven kills to pace the URI attack and help the team control tempo for most of the set. With the score tied 12-12, Rhode Island went on an 8-1 run that included four Richter kills, plus aces from Dakota Henry and Carly Thomas. KJ Johnson added a pair of late kills before Jahan Lalli's second ace of the set put URI ahead 2-0.

Set Three - Lafayette 25, Rhode Island 20
Rhode Island's attack slowed down as the Rams were limited to 12 kills and six errors. Needing the set to stay alive, Lafayette hit .250 as a team and never trailed. Jada Aksu and Noa Kamphuis each had three kills to lead a balanced attack.

Set Four - Lafayette 26, Rhode Island 24
In a set that featured 11 ties, Lafayette made plays at the key moments. Justine Puig had five kills with no errors, while Sophia Wilson and Noa Kamphuis each added four kills for the Leopard attack. Rhode Island had match point at 24-23 following an attack error by Lafayette. However, Jada Aksu got a kill to tie the score before back-to-back kills from Puig sent the match to a deciding fifth set.

Set Five - Lafayette 15, Rhode Island 5
Lafayette scored nine of the first 10 points of the set and never looked back. With four blocks, the Leopards forced Rhody to a negative hitting percentage in the tiebreaking set, as the Rams had three kills with five errors in 18 swings (-.111). By contrast, the hosts had six kills with no errors, plus three aces as they dominated all phases in the set.

Inside the Box Score

• This was the fourth five-set match of the season for Rhode Island, which fell to 2-2 in such matches. The Rams were 1-3 in five-set matches in 2025.
• The Rams had a season-high 10 aces.
• It was the most for the team since URI had 12 against Saint Louis on Oct. 24, 2024.
• Emily Sawyer led the offense with 15 kills, while Cara Richter had 13 to go with nine digs.
• Chloe Abuto had three blocks, three kills and three digs. With her first block of the night, she became the 10th player in program history to reach 300 for her career.
• Jahan Lalli recorded her third double-double, finishing with 19 assists, 12 digs and three aces.
• Dakota Henry added a team-high 20 digs with eight assists and two aces.
• Sydney Houchens had a career-best 18 digs.
• Kiara Copeland made her collegiate debut and had five digs.
• Ema Stermenska and Erika Bracey made their first appearances of the season.
• Stermenska had six digs, two assists and one ace.
• Bracey had four kills and one dig.   

Up Next
Rhode Island plays two matches Sunday at the Leopard Invitational. Rhody will face Penn at 11 a.m. and Quinnipiac at 4:30 p.m. Both matches are available for stream on YouTube.