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Gaston College Valentina Rodriguez during a recent practice session picked up a win in the Rhinos' first victory of the season with her Pair No. 1 partner Cristina Rotola
Gaston College Valentina Rodriguez during a recent practice session picked up a win in the Rhinos' first victory of the season with her Pair No. 1 partner Cristina Rotola
Posted: Mar 02, 2024

Gaston College picks up a win during weekend event at NCAA Division I school

Gaston College's beach volleyball broke into the victory column this weekend in matches on Friday and Saturday against four different schools at NCAA Division I Liberty University.

The Rhinos defeated Lancaster Bible College 3-2 on Friday afternoon after losing the University of Lynchburg 5-0 earlier on Friday and they dropped a 3-2 match to Region 10 rival Richard Bland and a 4-1 match to host Liberty on Saturday.

"We had another tough day of weather on Friday with cold temperatures and steady rain, but we managed to turn around after a very lackluster start against University of Lynchburg and get our first win in really tough conditions against Lancaster," Gaston College Rachel Noreika said.

In the win over Lancaster, No. 1 pair of Cristina Rotola and Valentina Rodriguez, No. 2 pair of Naomi Hilliard and Madison Dearing and No. 4 pairing of 21-13, 21-7 and No. 4 pair of Carli Phillips and Bianca Bowland took victories.

"Because of court limitations on Saturday we had to play in three waves and against Richard Bland," Noreika said. "Our fives had a very rocky start, but in the second wave, the threes and fours came ready to play and won in straight sets. The third wave was a heartbreaker for the two's who lost 16-14 in the third set. We played RBC a week in prior in 40 degree rain and got swept in a pretty disappointing showing for us, so today's play was much better despite the disappointing loss.
"And we fell short against a good Liberty team and honestly looked very flat the first two waves of that dual, but both the two's and one's battled the third wave and I'm proud of the adjustments they're making as pairs."

In the loss to Richard Bland, No. 3 pair Milica Gavric and Millea Styles and No. 4 pair Phillips and Bowland took the victories. and the loss to Liberty, No. 2 pair Hilliard and Dearing were victorious.

Gaston College returns to action in its first two home matches of the season at its own campus facility on Monday; The Rhinos meet Lancaster Bible College at noon and Erskine College at 4 p.m.