No matter what the sport, a team’s chances of winning a contest can be squashed in an instant by errors. Even one mistake can blur the line between triumph and defeat.

Such was the case for the Massachusetts volleyball team on Tuesday night. The Minutewomen were plagued by a multitude of mistakes in falling to a tenacious Rhode Island team, 3-0 in Kingston, R.I. The Rams forced the Maroon and White into 21 hitting errors, while UMass also self-inflicted some of the damage, giving away 14 points on service errors. When coupled with a fiery URI offense that was on top of its game, the mistakes spelled doom for the Minutewomen.

“It’s really hard to have an offense when you don’t pass well,” Head Coach Bonnie Kenny said. “Whenever we had chances to capitalize, we put together a few good runs. But our offense was pretty non-existent.”

URI shot out of the gates early in game one as it pumped out an early 17-9 lead. The Maroon and White reeled off three straight points, highlighted by kills from seniors Lauren Vander Veen and Lymarie Llovet, to cut the lead to 17-12. From that point on, however, the Rams took charge, and cruised to a 30-17 victory in the opening frame. Remarkably, the Kingston crew committed zero hitting errors in the first game for a .625 hitting percentage, while the struggling Minutewomen attack limped to a .074 percentage to start the match off, garnering only eight kills.

The second game saw the UMass attack catch a little bit more of a spark, as it went on a six-point run to take a 6-5 advantage, its first and only lead of the match. The Rams stampeded back and grabbed a 25-16 after four consecutive kills by star player Yolanda Bogacz. The Minutewomen came alive again, as Jitka Stehnova had two service aces to bring her team to within 28-25. But the Maroon and White’s comeback fell short, as URI went to the locker room with a 30-28 win and a 2-0 lead.

Coming out of the break, the home team yet again continued its offensive flurry, jumping out to a quick 8-1 lead. The Minutewomen could not muster a significant rally until late in the game. With the Rams up 28-22, UMass forced a series of URI errors and received a Janeen DeMarte kill to cut the lead to within one at 29-28. However, Rhode Island closed out the game and the match at that point to send the Minutewomen back to Amherst with a losing record in the Atlantic 10 at 3-4.

“I thought they did a fine job offensively,” said Kenny. “I think that was about as few digs as we’ve ever had.

“Yolanda Bogacz did what seniors do; she dominated at the end of the match,” she added. Bogacz led the Rams with a team-high 11 kills while hitting for an amazing .409 percentage.

DeMarte and Nitia Small led the UMass attack with eight kills apiece, while Lymarie Llovet slammed home six kills while contributing eight digs on defense. However, an anemic .109 hitting percentage for the match, along with 35 total service and hitting errors, ended up being the downfall of the Maroon and White.

“Nitia played all right the first couple games, but then they started keying in on her,” said Kenny. “[URI] just has really good team and plays with really good chemistry.”

The Minutewomen continue their quest toward an Atlantic 10 crown this Saturday when they travel to Pittsburgh to clash with Duquesne.