RICHMOND – Fourth-seeded VCU got 15 kills from Julia Rienks and 11 from Alicja Jaryszek to beat No. 5 George Mason, 3-1 (25-19, 15-25, 25-20, 25-20) Friday afternoon at the Siegel Center in the first Atlantic 10 Volleyball Championship semifinal.

The Rams (15-12) advance to Saturday’s semifinals to face top-seeded Dayton at noon.

VCU controlled most of the first set, finishing on an ace by Elif Ozsoy. The Patriots roared back in the second set however, grabbing the lead at 5-4 on a kill by Nia Thompson. GM never gave that advantage up, and evened the match on a block by Meredith Brown. Thompson led all players with 14 kills.

Jaryszek finished a kill to make the score 4-3, VCU, starting a 7-2 run that gave VCU a cushion in set three it exploited for the rest of the match. George Mason got within one twice on blocks by Haley Graetz and Brown, then on a kill by Brown, but the Rams survived the rally and finished the match with blocks from Letizia Galli and Jaryszek. The decisive fouth set followed a similar script, with an early VCU lead and GM tying the match on a Brown and Thompson block. But VCU scored six of the next seven points, spurred by two kills each from Galli and Rienks to finish the match.

Thomson and Kiera Hamilton each had a double-double for the Patriots (17-13), with Thompson tallying 10 digs to go with her 14 kills. Hamilton had 10 kills and 10 digs. Mia Hazelett had a match-high six blocks for George Mason. Autumn Martinez-Robinson recorded 15 digs.

Harkura Sugimoto led all players with 19 digs for VCU and Galli had 4 blocks and hit .389.