KINGSPORT - CIU volleyball started Saturday with an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament semifinal match and will end it with their second consecutive trip to the AAC Tournament Championship. The Rams were tested by a motivated Reinhardt (Ga.) team, but when the dust settled, CIU came away with 3-1 (20-25, 31-29, 26-24, 25-18) win. 

There were several-time throughout the match when a less experienced team might have given up hope. In the second set, the Rams trailed 24-19 but clawed their way back and would trade blows with the Eagles until finally collecting the set win, 31-29. The third set was just as grueling as it took 26-points for CIU to secure the set. 

Kira Rymer showed why she was the conference player of the year, collecting a postseason-high 24-kills (.378) in the victory. The Rams had two other upperclassmen with double-digit kills in the form of Alana Sanjurjo (13) and Mardi Scutchings (10). Kamelia De Jesus notched her career-high in assists with 56, recording her fourth 50-plus assist match this season. De Jesus added to her stat-line with 19 digs, as freshman Kelcey Mangum added the same number of digs (19) to the box score. The Rams had 13 total blocks, with four coming from Scutchings, and six service aces, with half coming from the serves of Sanjurjo. 

Up Next: The Rams will play the winner of Bluefield (Va.) and Bryan (Tenn.) at 4:30 PM in the AAC Tournament final.