Bryan Upsets Women's Volleyball in Tennessee

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

Photo Courtesy of Greg Spell/G-RoxPhotos.com

DAYTON, Tenn. – The Lions of Bryan (Tenn.) protected their home court on Saturday and earned the top seed in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship after sweeping the now-second-seeded Eagles, 15-25, 18-25, 20-25.

The hosts took care of business and dropped Reinhardt – who share the conference regular-season championship – to 17-5 overall and 17-2 in the league.

Despite the defeat, the hometown team is headed to the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship once again after earning an automatic bid as the regular-season runner-up.

"No excuses, each team in our conference deals with injuries and the pandemic," head coach Brian Goodhind said. "We had a good game plan today and we didn't execute. To Bryan's credit, they executed their game plan perfectly and we couldn't push them out of their system. They were hands-down the better team today. I'm happy our team can share the regular-season championship, but Bryan so deserves the No. 1 seed going into the conference tournament… Great job by Coach Day, her staff, and most importantly, their players.

"Even in a very tough loss, all the Honor and Glory goes to God."

The Lions had everything going for them on this day as they totaled 34 kills and a .212 hitting percentage combined to a combined percentage of .031 for the hometown club.

Erinn Marroquin was able to return to the court as a full participant and post a double-double with 14 assists and 13 digs, while Holly Heath was out-front with 26 digs all by herself.

The Eagles didn't help themselves on offense with 27 combined errors, and individually, three players posted five kills to pace the scoring.

Jacoby Sims also had three kills and two solo blocks in the loss.

Stay tuned for seeding announcements and additional information about the AAC Championship in the coming days. 

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For more information on Reinhardt Women's Volleyball, please click here.