RIO GRANDE, Ohio--Cumberland men's volleyball starts their four-game road set with a 3-0 conference sweep over the University of Rio Grande at Newt Oliver Arena Thursday evening.

Cumberland (6-11, 3-4 MSC) picked up their third straight victory tonight over Rio Grande. The Phoenix posted 35 kills and just 14 attack errors for a .343 hit percentage. Cumberland still struggled with their serves posting 14 service errors.

Luca Ilic led the way with a game-high 10 kills while freshman Griffin Newby notched seven. Setter Jordan Pierce had a game-high 27 assists in the win and Caleb Ginnings notched 13 digs. 

Rio Grande (1-12, 0-9 MSC) struggled with errors registering a combined 39 errors in the match. 

In the first set, Cumberland jumped out to a 4-1 lead and quickly extended that to 8-3. A 3-0 run by the Red Storm brought it back to a two point game, but Cumberland answered to push it back out to five at 12-7. The Phoenix used a 4-1 run to get by as much as seven at 16-9, but Rio Grande came storming back with a 5-1 run to cut it to three at 17-14. Cumberland again quickly pushed it back to a five point game and extended it to six winning the first set 25-19.

The second set started with back and forth action until a 4-4 tie. At that point the Phoenix went on a 6-1 run to get up by five where it would stand to 15-10. The Phoenix would dominate the last part of the second set winning the set 25-15. 

Cumberland continued with the momentum in the third, jumping up 7-4. The Phoenix would quickly push that out to six and would ride that to a 25-19 third set win for the clean sweep. 

The Phoenix will be on the road on Saturday at Bluefield for a tri-match with the Rams and Carolina University.