DAYTON, Ohio. — Second-seeded VCU used an aggressive defense and was efficient offensively to beat No. 3 Rhode Island 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-19) in the Atlantic 10 Volleyball Championship semifinals Friday afternoon at the Frericks Center.

VCU (13-4) advances to its fourth straight A-10 title match to face the winner of No. 1 Dayton and No. 4 Fordham. It will be the fifth overall appearance for the Rams in the championship final since they joined the A-10 in 2012. The final will be played Saturday at noon.

VCU registered nine team blocks in the match, seven of which were assisted by Jasmine Knight, with five more block assists by Sabria Cooper. Combined with 14 digs from Paula Neciporuka and 10 more from Alyna Draper, the VCU defense proved to be stingy, limited Rhody's offense to a .143 hitting percentage.

The higher-seeded Rams were also effective on the offensive end, hitting .378 as a team, with Knight, and Qairo Bentley registering 11 kills each while hitting .381 and .476 respectively. Neciporuka hit a match-high .643 with nine kills and no errors.

The difference in set one was an early 10-1 VCU run that included a pair of kills from Knight and a block from Knight and Cooper. A kill from Rhody's Gabrielle Shilling made the score 4-4, but a service error started the run. A kill by Samantha Bahut briefly broke the run, but VCU rattled off four more points, starting with a Cooper kill. Rhode Island chipped away at the lead and closed within three at 20-17 on kills by Shilling and Claire Wagner, but VCU rattled off the final five points of the set to take a 1-0 lead.

URI (7-8) held a 12-10 lead in set two following a Shilling kill when VCU tied the match and took a large lead with a 10 run that was spurred by four blocks. VCU allowed just three more Rhody points in the set while Bentley ripped off four kills in the run to secure a 2-0 lead.
 
VCU established a 6-0 lead to start set three and led by as many as nine before Rhode Island rallied and pulled within four on a Wagner kill that made is 19-14. URI scored four of the final seven points, including kills by Claire Chaplinski and Natale Zanellato, but two late kills from Neciporuka gave VCU the match victory.
 
Shilling registered a team-high nine kills and .667 hitting percentage while Zanellato had six kills and hit .385. Ella Ratzloff tallied nine digs for Rhody.