KINGSTON, R.I. – The University of Hartford volleyball team dropped its opening match at the Art Carmichael Invitational in three sets (24-23, 26-24, 27-25) to the host Rhode Island Rams on Thursday night at Keaney Gymnasium. Sophomore utility hitter Sareeta Nethersole led the Hawks for the fifth-straight match with 15 kills and a .462 hitting average.

As a team, Hartford finished the match outhitting its opponent with a .250 average on 42 kills and 17 errors in 100 total attacks. The Rams finished the match with a .225 average, compiling three more kills than the Hawks and suffering an additional error in 120 total swings.

Individually both of the Hawks leading hitters finished .300 or better with Nethersole's .462 average leading the team. In addition to her 15 kills she suffered three errors in 36 total attacks. Junior Dionna Kirton finished second overall with 11 kills and .308 average with three errors in 26 total attacks. Sophomore setter Jackie Tamburri led the Hawks with 35 assists.

Defensively, one Hawk finished with double digit digs, Kirton who stopped 10 Ram attacks. Nethersole finished second with nine, breaking her streak of eight straight matches with double figure digs. The Hawks also blocked three total shots, with six different players involved in the blocking efforts.

Rhode Island opened the match winning the first four points of the first set before an attack error on Catie Steffen put the first Hawks point on the board. Steffen answered with her third kill of the set to five the Rams a 5-1 lead.

After an attacking error on the Hawks led to the Rams largest lead of five, 11-6, Hartford answered by rattling off four straight points, including back-to-back kills from Nethersole that put the Hawks within one, 11-10. From that point, the set would see six ties and a pair of lead changes, before a four-point URI run gave the Rams a 19-17 lead that they would not relinquish, despite the Hawks taking a five points over a stretch of seven total.

The second set saw the most lead changes in the match with five total before all was said and done. Hartford's largest lead in the set came at 17-14 after a kill from junior Lindsay Anderson and a pair of errors on the Rams. The home team responded by opening up a 21-17 lead and never looked back from that point. After a pair of kills from Nethersole tied the set at 25, bBack-to-back kills from Steffen closed out the second game and gave URI a 2-0 advantage in the match.

In the third set the Hawks scored the first two points before the Rams responded by taking an 8-5 lead and matched that at 10-7. The final set also saw a total of nine ties but this time only three lead changes took place. Other than the initial two point lead, the Hawks only other lead came on kills from Anderson and Kami Nethersole that provided a 16-15 advantage, but URI didn't look back after regaining the advantage on a Hawks error.

The Hawks play two more matches at URI, the first on Friday against Big East member Seton Hall at 3:00 p.m. Hartford will return for its final match of the weekend on Saturday afternoon against Canisius at 12:00 p.m.