By Gordie Frierson

Match 1: CIU 1 Keiser 3 

CIU Volleyball played their first games of the season at home on Wednesday night with a tri-match against Keiser University and Columbia College. The Rams took on the Seahawks of Keiser in the first match of the evening. This was the second meeting of the two teams with Keiser taking the first match at home in Florida, 3 - 0. The Rams had other ideas on how this meeting would end and started out strong with kills from De'Asija Harden and Megan Lung. The Seahawks would not be deterred, however,  and would storm back and take the set 25 - 14. Set 2 would be much of the same as the Rams fell 25 - 16. However, set 3 would be a different story as the Rams would see strong play behind the veteran leadership of Bruna Barrozo and Mackenzie Sanchez and the Rams would fight back with a 23 - 25 set win. Set 4 would be a gritty fight by both teams. The Rams would take leads throughout the set and would hold a 23 - 22 advantage. The Seahawks would bounce back and tie the game at 24 - 24. Despite a valiant effort by the Rams, Keiser would take the match 27 - 25. 

Coach Haver on Match 1: 

 "We had a bit of a slow start in our first two sets against Keiser.  That's to be expected.  We are only in our second year. First home game of the season.  Ten Freshmen, the rest are only sophomores. We don't have upperclassmen who have been doing this for three or four years like our competitors.  Keiser is an extremely solid program. With a setter and outside hitter, both nationally ranked, the competition is going to be tough.  We worked through some of our first-home-game jitters and put some pressure on them.  We took a set from them and almost forced a fifth set, losing 25-27 in the fourth. Yes, I'm very pleased with that.  This loss was very valuable for us.  We learned so much. We did well under pressure in tight games.  That's not typical with young teams, but that's what we are trying to do.  Compete against tough teams...  and we did."

Match 2: CIU 3 Columbia College 0

In the second match of the night, the Rams would come ready to play. CIU came flying out of the gate to take a 7 - 3 lead over the Koalas and never looked back. Behind the strong play of De' Asija Harden and Megan Lung, the Rams would steamroll their way to a 25 - 11 set 1 win. The second set of the match would prove to be the toughest for the Rams as the Koalas held their own and would even take the lead. Ram's setters Mackenzie Sanchez and Lily Tang consistently created scoring opportunities throughout the set allowing the Rams to fight their way back to a 24 - 24 tie. From there the Rams would go mistake-free and would win off of two errors by the Koalas 26 - 24. Set 3 would mirror the first set of the match as CIU would dominate throughout. Lung and Harden would again lead the way with well-placed hits leading to kills. However, the most impactful player of the match would be sophomore Bruna Barrazo. Barrazo would lead the Rams with a series of aces that all but put the game away. Capitalizing on their veteran leader's strong play, the Rams would win the set a resounding 25 - 11 and the match 3 -0.

Coach Haver on the win:

"I'm very proud of my girls tonight. It's always fun when we play Columbia College.  We have a bit of a crosstown rivalry going on. Keyaira is doing a great job building up that program over there. She has some new talent and their bench got a lot deeper this year. We worked hard tonight, worked through some preconference-play kinks.  I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do this season." 

CIU Volleyball will be back at home on September 17th, at 6:30 PM to take on Columbia College yet again, this time as part of Appalachian Athletic Conference play.