PHILADELPHIA, PA - In their Atlantic 10 home opener at Tom Gola Arena on Friday evening, the La Salle Explorer volleyball team hosted the Rhode Island Rams, a team they beat to break a long-standing streak on winless seasons in the Atlantic 10 two seasons ago.  With Rhode Island entering with a 3-13 record, the Explorers were poised to post a win, but the Rams had other ideas.  At the end of the three-game match, the Rams took a 3-0 victory over the Explorers by scores of 30-23, 30-28, 30-22.  Rhode Island improves to 4-13, while La Salle slips to 7-13.

Game one was marked by streaks, as the Explorers jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, the Rams rallied to tie the game at 7-7 and then after trading several series of points, Rhode Island established an 18-12 lead.  But the Rams did not hold up well against the serving of Erin Sullivan who landed three aces in a four-point run, to get the score to 18-17 and then the Explorers tied the match at 18-18.  La Salle could not break the tie, and the Rams took another run and eventually earned the 30-23 victory.

In game two, the teams stayed even for much of the first half of the game and the Explorers took a one-point lead at 17-16 and extended it to two points at 19-17.  The Rams called a time-out after falling behind three points at 22-19, but a timeout did the trick as the Rams got to within one at 24-23 and forced La Salle to call a timeout of their own.  Rhode Island took the lead at 25-24 and kept the lead until winning by a two-point margin of 30-28.

Game three proved to be Rhode Island's game, as the Rams mounted a 13 points lead at 26-13.  Not giving up the Explorers made it a respectable game, closing the gap to seven points at 29-22 before falling 30-22.

Sullivan led the way for the Explorers with six kills on offense to go with the three service aces.  On defense, she tallied eight digs and posted a team-high three assisted blocks.

Christa Dominick, Jackie Kushman and Brittany Hanley each landed five kills to pace the Explorer offense.  Setter Caitlin Conner assisted on 24 of La Salle's 29 kills in the match.

On defense, libero Carolyn Judge added 11 digs to her season total, while Stephanie Owen chipped in 10 digs.

The Rams were led by Rachel Bello with 10 kills and three other Rhode Island players tallied seven kills.  Setter Lindsay St. John assisted on 22 Ram kills, while Kaira Kachadurian asssisted on an additional 16 kills.

On defense, Rhode Island libero Leslie Wiekamp posted a match-best 13 digs.

La Salle will return to action at Tom Gola Arena on Saturday night when they host the Fordham Rams at 5:00 p.m.