SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- The Notre Dame Falcons dropped a pair of matches against Rio Grande and Fairmont State (W.Va.) at a tri-match on Saturday afternoon at Murphy Gymnasium. 

The losses for the Falcons (9-18) marked their fourth and fifth in a row. 

Rio Grande surrendered the first two points of the opening set in the first match of the day against the Falcons, but responded quickly by scoring the next three points, and never trailed again.  Rio led by as many as eight (18-10) in the opening set, and came away with the win, 25-19. 

The second set was dominated by Rio from the beginning, as they scored 10 of the first 14 points of the set.  The Red Storm led by 10 at one point (20-10) and took a 2-0 lead in the match with another 25-19 victory. 

The Falcons put up a better fight in the third match, and took an 8-7 lead, that they did not surrender until the Red Storm caught fire and scored four straight points to take a 16-15 advantage.  The two teams went back and forth, and the set was tied at 18-18, when Rio turned it on, to take the final set, 25-21. 

In their second match of the afternoon, the Falcons took the first two sets against Fairmont State, but Fairmont rallied to take the next two, tying the match at 2-2.  The two teams were engaged in a tight battle in the decisive fifth set, as Fairmont State prevailed, 16-14.

The Falcons will host their final home match of the season on Tuesday, Nov. 1, when they welcome Malone into Murphy Gymnasium.  The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.