November 19, 2021 | Women's Volleyball
Women's Volleyball making trek to Pacific Northwest for NAIA Women's Volleyball Championship Opening Round
COLUMBIA, S.C. Columbia International University's women's volleyball team, will cap off their impressive 2021 season with a trip to the NAIA Women's Volleyball Championship Opening Round. The trip will be CIU volleyball's first excursion to an NAIA championship tournament. The Rams fell last week in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament championship and now will have to head across country to La Grande, Ore., to face Eastern Oregon University (EOU). The Mountaineers hail from the Cascade Collegiate Conference, arguably one of the best NAIA volleyball conferences in the country. EOU enters the match with an impressive 25-7 record, with six of those seven losses coming against ranked opponents.
However, CIU has had an excellent season in their own right as the Rams went 29-8 overall this season, including a their first-ever win over a NAIA top 25 opponent, and were crowned AAC Regular-Season Co-Champions.
The Rams enter the match boasting one of the best young setters in the country in Kamelia De Jesus, as the sophomore from Puerto Rico was named the AAC Setter of the Year last week. De Jesus averaged 8.73 assists per set and tallied 1,091 total assists. The Rams are led by Coach Amber Haver who started the program back in 2018. Haver was recently bestowed AAC Coach of the Year honors after going 18-2 in the AAC regular season.
The Rams and Mountaineers will face off on Saturday, Nov. 20 in Quinn Coliseum on the campus of Eastern Oregon. Match-time is set for 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Live video, live stat, and ticket links can be found on CIURAMS.com.
