The GW volleyball team split its weekend games, crushing Atlantic 10 bottom-dweller Fordham 3-0 Saturday after being swept by Rhode Island Friday. The Colonials’ loss to Rhode Island continued the team’s recent struggles against the conference’s upper-echelon teams, as GW has now lost at least once to each of the other three schools with .500-plus records.

The Colonials (19-6, 7-3 A-10) did not lose ground in the standings, however. After the loss to Rhode Island (11-15, 6-4 A-10) Friday, GW was tied with the Rams for third place in the A-10. But GW’s win against Fordham and a Rhode Island loss to Duquesne Saturday gave the Colonials sole possession of third place.

Despite losses to Rhode Island, Temple and Dayton the past three weeks, sophomore Lindsey Vernand said the team’s confidence remains high.

“These are our toughest matches of the year and we always try to go 1-1 with these teams,” she said. “So I don’t think it’s a problem with our confidence.”

GW played poorly Friday while squandering two big leads against Rhode Island. The Colonials jumped ahead 6-0 in the first two games and held a 17-9 lead in Game One and a 16-9 lead in Game Two. But both times, they ended up losing 30-28. Rhode Island won Game Three, 30-27, to close out the victory.

Vernand led all Colonials with 19 digs and senior co-captain Lauren Dunning had 45 assists. Rhode Island’s superb defense keyed the win, as the Rams recorded 14 blocks and 50 digs.

The easy victory over Fordham (8-19, 1-9 A-10) Saturday at the Rose Hill Gym in New York took only one hour and 22 minutes. Senior co-captain Sarah Hokom led GW with 17 kills and Vernand added 13 kills as GW won 30-24, 30-25 and 30-19.

Freshman Kelly Kabbes, who spent the last several weeks on the bench, also played well for the Colonials, notching seven kills on an errorless night.

The Colonials will now travel to Ohio to face Xavier (8-14, 2-6 A-10) Friday night and Dayton (19-8, 8-1 A-10) Saturday afternoon.