MONTREAT, N.C – The CIU women's volleyball team continued a westward road trip on Saturday afternoon as the Rams took on the Montreat College Cavaliers. Coming off a tough loss to Milligan University the night before, CIU bounced back with a 3-0 sweep of the Cavaliers. The Rams moved to 6-4 on the season, continuing their best start in league play in their short program history. The Cavaliers dropped to 3-11 on the season with the loss.

How It Happened

Set One: CIU blew open a 5-1 advantage over the Cavaliers thanks to errors by Montreat and an ace by Alana Sanjurjo. The freshman from Puerto Rico would continue her strong start, later on, picking up a kill to hand CIU a 14-6 lead. The Rams lead proved unsurmountable, and CIU easily took set one 25-15. Sanjurjo proved to be ultra-productive in the set with 6 kills and 1 ace.

Set Two: Freshmen again played essential roles in set two, with strong attacks coming from Abbey Kleist and Shaniece Steer. With the Rams leading 20-9, freshman setter Kamelia De Jesus recorded a remarkable 4 aces in a row to push the Rams to 24 points. Moments later, Milijana Zmuric put the Cavaliers out their misery with the kill ending the set 25-10.

Set Three: The third set proved to be a much more competitive affair as the Rams and Cavaliers found themselves deadlocked at 24-24 the Rams momentarily took a 25-24 lead off a Zmuric kill but couldn't quite put away Montreat. The set was pushed to a 29-29 tie by the Cavaliers before the Rams finally pulled away because of a Steer kill and a Cavalier error.

Game Notes:

• Highly productive freshmen were the theme of the afternoon as setter Kamelia De Jesus had a season-high 5 aces and picked up 30 assists.
• Perhaps the most impressive newcomer was Milijana Zmuric, who had 8 kills and only 1 error hitting an impressive .438. Shaniece Steer also had impressive 9 kills to 1 error but had a lower hitting percentage at .276 because of the volume of attempts.
• Zmuric was an important factor defensively as she recorded 3 blocks.
• As a team CIU had 9 aces, with Alana Sanjurjo picking up 2 aces on top of her 10 kills.
• CIU as a team had a .209 hitting percentage

What Coach Haver is saying

"Proud of a total team effort today. The team was selfless, disciplined, and focused. We exhibited mental toughness during extra points in the third set. Happy to close it out in three. Looking forward to next week."

Up Next:

CIU will travel to Waleska, Georgia, on Thursday, November 6th, to battle with undefeated Reinhardt University.