By Gordie Frierson

BLUEFIELD, VA - It was a Rams against Rams matchup Saturday as the CIU women's volleyball team traveled to Virginia to battle the Rams of Bluefield College. CIU and Bluefield both entered the contest with 8 losses on their record in the conference. Both teams both came in sitting in 5th place in their respected divisions. CIU coming out of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) South Division and Bluefield out of the AAC North Division. Despite being evenly matched coming into the contest, Bluefield would get the better of CIU Saturday afternoon winning three sets to none. 

The Rams would drop the first set 25-18, the second 25-12 and the third 25-20. However, Coach Amber Haver saw strong contributions from multiple players. "We were stronger in serve receive today with Andrea Salas, Bruna Barrozo, and Carla Cauchi handling the brunt of responsibility in reception" commented Haver "We've also been working aggressively on production in blocking. I believe that was evident today. Aniya Marshall really showed up for us today with some affective blocking at key moments.

Haver would go on to summarize her thoughts on the match and what the Rams can improve on moving forward saying, "We simply need to minimize errors. There were some calls that didn't go our way today and it rattled us. While some of that is to be expected with a young team, we are going to have to increase our mental toughness and keep our composure during clutch moments, and long rallies. If we can do that we will be able to beat the tough teams in our conference."

Up Next 

CIU is back at home as they face Truett McConnell University on Tuesday, October 15th. The Rams have already defeated TMU once this season in Cleveland, GA. Looking forward to the upcoming match, Coach Haver commented: "We didn't get the win today, but we got better and learned a lot about what we need to do before Tuesday."