Columbia, Mo. – The 8^th-ranked Cougar Volleyball team defeated visiting William Woods University 3-0 this evening in an American Midwest Conference (AMC) matchup by scores of 25-23, 25-18, and 25-15. Columbia improves to 18-5 on the year and 7-1 in AMC play while the Owls drop to 17-10 overall and 7-1 in league play.

The Cougars won the first set 25-23 after hitting 0.424 while holding the Owls to a 0.303 hitting efficiency. Columbia seemed to be in control of the set as they led 18-14 towards the end of the game. However, the Owls never backed down as they chipped away at the Columbia lead. With the Cougars up 21-17, WWU scored six of the next eight points to tie the set at 23, but a kill by Amber Graham and an attack error by the Owls, allowed the Cougars to pull away with the win.

Both teams kept things close in set two as the game was tied six different times. With the score knotted at 14, Columbia used a 5-1 run to gain some separation and never looked back from there. The Cougars outscored the Owls 6-3 to end the game to go up 2-0 in the match.

Columbia rushed out to a 11-4 lead, and never trailed from there as they took the third set, 25-15

The Cougars hit 0.449 for the match behind a team-high 14 kills from Graham. Eirini Chatziefstratiadou finished with 12 kills while NAIA Attacker of the Week, Penny Liu notched 11 of her own. Liu, Sasha Robinson, and Mikah Simpson led all players with eight digs apiece and Sashiko Heredia dished out 44 assists.

The Cougar volleyball team moved up two spots to No. 8 in the latest Tachikara-NAIA Coaches Top 25 Poll, which was released today. Columbia went 4-1 last week and defeated No. 3 Missouri Baptist 3-1 on Saturday after falling to the Spartans 3-2 the Wednesday before.

The top-five shifted from the last week as Viterbo moved up to No. 1 earning 19 first-place votes and 590 points. Midland moved up two spots to No. 2 and Missouri Baptist remained in the No. 3 position. Biola fell three spots to No. 4 and captured two first place votes while Lindsey Wilson rounded out the top five.

The Cougars return to action Wednesday, October 21^st when they host No. 14 ranked ­­­Park University. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in the arena of Southwell Complex.