NASHUA, N.H. – The Rivier women's volleyball team was bested by Gordon in four sets in a non-conference contest at the Muldoon Center on Thursday night.
With the loss, the Raiders fell to 3-5 heading into their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) opener while the Fighting Scots improved to 3-4 overall.
After falling behind 11-5 in the opening set, Rivier used a four-point swing beginning with a kill by junior outside Ali Rivera and an ace from senior middle Lily Sills to cut the deficit to two. The Raiders took their first lead of the set at 14-13 when a Scots attack error followed a kill by senior setter Ryan Hicks and an ace from Rivera. The Raiders lead would increase to four points at 20-16 on back-to-back errors from Gordon. Leading 20-17, two consecutive kills by Hicks and Rivera were followed up by a Sills ace to make it 23-17 to give Riv enough of an edge to handily close out the set, 25-18. Rivera hit .500 with four kills in the opening frame.
Trailing 19-10 in the second, Riv would strike for the next five points to get back in the game late. After a side-out kill by Hicks, first-year setter Lily Seibel dropped in an ace to make it 21-17. Back-to-back kills from sophomore outside Sam Driend and Sills on both sides of a Gordon timeout would close the gap to a 21-19 deficit. The Raiders would close within one point at 23-22, but the Scots would benefit from a Rivier error and a service ace to close it out and tie the match at 1-1. Sills produced a .444 hitting percentage in the set, notching four kills on nine errorless attempts.
Rivier called a timeout trailing 12-6 in the third, which helped flip momentum. The Raiders put together an 11-4 run with help from Hannah Raab's service run, which included two aces, to force Gordon into a timeout leading 18-17. Gordon would respond with a 7-1 run of its own to seal the third set victory, 25-18, and take a 2-1 match lead.
The Scots led for the entirety of the fourth set to secure the road victory.
Hicks recorded 20 assists and 10 digs to post a double-double in the defeat.
Rivier will head to New London, Conn. for its GNAC opener at Mitchell on Saturday afternoon. First serve is slated for 1:00 p.m.
