The River Falls to Daytona State in Round One of State Tournament

On Friday, November 5^th the sixth seeded Indian River opened the NJCAA Volleyball Region VIII State Tournament against the third seeded Daytona State Falcons. The game was definitely going to be a battle with a back and forth scoring between the teams at the beginning in set one with a score of 11-11. The River came out with a fire taking the lead 20 to 14. The Falcons called a time out and came back to prove they weren't going down without a fight. They came back to tie to the game 23-23. The score was tied again at 24-24, with Daytona State making back-to-back errors at the end of the set the final score of set one was 26-24 in favor of the River.

The Falcons and the Pioneers flipped the script in set two. The falcons came out in set 2 and kept a 3-point lead for most of the set. When The River went down 7-12, they had to call a timeout to try and regain momentum.  Irene Verdino, a sophomore OH from Italy came out and gave us a big kill down the line, The River got their energy back. The River worked hard to try and close the 5 point gap, but called their second time out with the Falcons up 18-13. The Falcons got their largest lead of the game at 19-13, but a serving run by First Team All State player Greta Klotz for The River back within 3. The falcons made errors to make their lead only down to 2. A big solo block from Sophomore Middle Blocker Samantha Dibene cut the falcon's lead down to 1, forcing the Falcons to call a time out. With the falcons just to points away from game point, the River forces them to make some errors and the game is tied 23-23, forcing the falcons to call their second time out. The play continued back and forth, and had 3 lead changes in the last run of points, but The River drops set two 28-26.

The back and forth battle ended after set two with the Falcons dominating set three, 25-8.

Set four was point for point early on in the match. The River scrambled and gave all they had in the fight left. Unfortunately, the couldn't gain the momentum back from Daytona State after set 3. The River dropped set 4 25-16.

Top performers for The River was Sophomore Right Side Hitter, Re'na Ashley with 10 kills on 20 attempts. She also added 4 blocks on the match. Second Team All-Conference player Mallory Roney tied with Ashley for the lead of 10 kills. Sophomore Libero Jasmine Sayre had 17 digs on the match, as well as an ace. The River falls to the consolation bracket to play Polk State in the battle for 3^rd place at 1pm on November 6^th.