Sioux City, Iowa – The 4^th-ranked Columbia Volleyball team swept the competition for the second straight day at the NAIA Volleyball National Championships, improving to 2-0 in pool play with a 3-0 (25-19, 28-26, 25-22) victory over 17^th-ranked Lourdes University on Wednesday afternoon. The Cougars improve to 29-7 overall on the year with the win, their 9^th straight dating back to October 24^th. Lourdes falls to 32-2 on the season with the loss.

Columbia entered the national championship as the most experienced team as this is the 22nd appearance for the Cougars winning three national titles, finishing second five times and claiming third three times. The Cougars hold an 83-43 all-time record at nationals after yesterday and today's wins.

As the only unbeaten team coming into the national championship, Lourdes (Ohio) fell to Hastings (Neb.) in four sets Tuesday evening.  Entering play this week, Lourdes boasted a 32-0 record and claimed the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference championship.  Yesterday's match win for Hastings over Lourdes was the first at the national championship since downing former NAIA member Lee (Tenn.), 3-1, in 2012.

The Cougars got off to a strong start in today's match as they led 9-3 early on in game one. Two straight points by the Gray Wolves cut the deficit to four, but Columbia quickly extended their lead back out with a 5-1 run and held a 14-6 advantage over Lourdes midway through the game. Columbia led by as many as 10 in the set with the Gray Wolves coming within six towards the end, but the Cougars would go on to win the set, 25-19.

Columbia jumped out to a 6-3 lead in game two on a service ace by Penny Liu, but two Cougar miscues and a kill by the Gray Wolves tied the set at six. After trading points, Columbia used four straight points to go ahead 11-7 on a service ace by Eirini Chatziefstratiadou to gain separation, but the Gray Wolves responded with a run of their own, eventually knotting the game at 12. The teams battled back and forth, tying the game at every number since 12, but Lourdes would grab their largest lead of the match at 20-17 with the help of back-to-back kills and a Cougar error. Columbia pulled within two at 21-19, but a service and hitting error by the Cougars allowed Lourdes to gain a 23-19 advantage. The Cougars made it a one point game, scoring the next three points with the help of two errors by Lourdes and a kill by Liu and eventually went ahead 25-24 as Liu put it away again. Lourdes would fight off three more set points by the Cougars, but with the score tied at 26 there was an attack error by the Gray Wolves and a kill by Chatziefstratiadou to allow Columbia to pull away with the 28-26 second set win.

The Cougars led 5-1 early, but the Gray Wolves fought their way back and would eventually tie the game at eight in the third set. Two straight kills by Amber Graham and a kill by Liu helped the Cougars grab a 12-9 lead, but Lourdes continued to battle and would tie the score back up at 13. A 5-1 run by Columbia allowed the team to gain an 18-14 advantage, causing the Gray Wolves to call a timeout. The teams traded points from there, but three Columbia errors and a block at the net tied the game at 20. Graham and Liu put down two huge kills, making the score 22-20, but once again Lourdes tied the game at 22 with a kill and another Cougar error. However, Columbia would be able to put the game away, scoring the last three points on kills by Polina Severina and Liu and an attack error by Lourdes.

The Cougars hit 0.264 for the game while limiting the Gray Wolves to a 0.147 hitting percentage. Liu led the attack with her seventh straight performance with double figure kills, finishing with 15 kills and 11 digs to go along with five block assists. Graham chipped in 11 kills while Sashiko Heredia led all players with 39 total assists.

Lourdes was led by Stephanie Ruffing with 10 kills and Meghan Birr with nine digs. Birr also led her squad with 24 assists.

Columbia will wrap up pool play tomorrow afternoon against No. 9 Hastings College (Neb.). The Broncos (24-8) are 1-0 in pool play and is set to face Mount Vernon Nazarene University this afternoon at 3:15 p.m. for their second pool play match. Match time for tomorrow is scheduled for 3:15 pm at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.

Hastings is making its ninth appearance to the national championships and first since 2012 where the Broncos were knocked out of the round of eight by eventual National Champion Concordia (Calif.). Hastings is 18-23 in national championship play and will look to improve on that this year coming in as the overall No. 9 seed.

Tune in live on the NAIA Network (http://portal.stretchinternet.com/naia/) to watch the match and follow live stats. Fans can also listen live for free to our very own Tex Little as he does the play by play on the Columbia Cougar portal at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/columbia/