KINGSPORT, Tenn. – In their first venture to the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament on Wednesday, the CIU women's volleyball team would take on a familiar foe in the Reinhardt Eagles. CIU (17-12) came into the tournament as the 7th seed after tying for 5th place in the conference regular season. Reinhardt (18-12 entered the afternoon as the 2nd overall seed after they were edged out of the top spot in the regular season by Bryan. The Rams gave a valiant effort in the quarterfinal matchup and forced the Eagles to fight for every point, but despite CIU's best efforts, Reinhardt squeaked by in three sets.

How It Happened: CIU 0 RU 3 (18-25, 20-25, 23-25): Set one was tightly contested from the first serve as both teams jockeyed for an advantage. A Shaniece Steer kill tied the set at 10-10 as the Rams had an opportunity to take the lead. However, after the teams were again deadlocked at 14-14, the Eagles would outscore the Rams 11-4 the rest of the set to go up 1-0.

The second set saw more of the same has an evenly played set ensued. CIU would grab a 9-8 advantage on a Kira Rymer kill. Despite solid play, the Rams fell behind but steadily worked their way back into the game-tying it at 17-17 off the Abbey Kleist attack. Unfortunately for the Rams, they would once again be outscored as the Eagles sprung forward taking the set 25-20.

Set three was just as competitive as the first two sets as the CIU held their largest lead of the match 13-9 after a Steer kill. CIU trailed briefly but looked poised for the set win after a Carla Cauchi service ace gave the Rams the 21-19 lead. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be, as the young CIU squad could not quite hold on, yielding to the Eagles in the third set 25-23.

Game Notes:

• In the absence of several of the Rams' top hitters, Gabriela Vega has begun to shine as she led the Rams in kills with 10 while recording a .304 hitting percentage. Vega added a service ace and two blocks.
• Freshmen Kira Rymer had seven kills and Shanice Steer had nine kills in their AAC postseason debut. Steer was second on the team in digs with 10 while Rymer tallied a service ace.
• Fabianne Besosa has settled into her role as she led CIU with 17 digs while freshman setter Kamelia De Jesus had 23 assists and eight digs.
• Fernanda Ortiz and Camri Goodwin made an impact off the bench with three kills each.

What Coach Haver is saying:
"Reinhardt was the better team today. We needed to minimize errors and play our game. Reinhardt took a little lead, and we started playing timid. That's not CIU Volleyball. We took too long to make adjustments. We are young, but we can't play like it. Today was a big lesson for our young program. Hopefully, we learned something valuable with this loss. Our goal is always growth over wins. We are going to trust the growth process. Expect big things from this group moving forward."

Up Next:
CIU will continue the spring season playing an NCCAA tri-match on April 10th against Bob Jones and Johnson (Tenn.) in Greenville.