A promising start didn’t hold up as the Riverland volleyball team fell to Rochester 17-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-17 on the road Wednesday.

The Blue Devils (8-13 overall, 5-5 MCAC South) took the first game after jumping out to a 6-1 lead early against Rochester (19-2 overall, 8-1 MCAC South), which is ranked No. 5 in the nation.

“I felt very optimistic that we could win the match after that first game,” RCC head coach Helen Jahr said. “Then we made attacking errors over the next three games and it hurt us. I hope we make it to state so we can play them again.”

Kate Krogh racked up 11 kills to go with her 30 digs as Rochester’s defense focused on Riverland’s Stephanie Neumann, who had 10 kills and two ace serves.

“They did a good job on defense against Steph, but Kate made some nice adjustments to find some attacks,” Jahr said.

Krissy Schemmel had 31 assists and 21 digs for the Blue Devils, Katie Williams had 24 digs, Abbie Curry had four blocks and Kelsey Brink had five block assists.

RCC will host Minnesota West Friday at 6:30 p.m.