Sioux City, Iowa - The Columbia College volleyball team defeated Biola University 3-2 on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the 2015 NAIA Volleyball National Championships. The Cougars, the No. 4 seed, earned the victory over the Eagles by scores of 25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 20-25 and 16-14. Columbia improves to 31-7 on the year with the win, their 11^th straight victory, and advances to tomorrow's national semifinal round, where they will take on the top-ranked Lindsey Wilson College. No. 5 Biola ends the season with a record of 30-4.

Biola advanced out of Pool E with a perfect 3-0 record in pool play and defeated Madonna University 3-0 earlier this morning to advance to the quarterfinals. The Eagles defeated American Midwest Conference (AMC) foe Park University 3-1 last night to end the Pirates' season.

The Cougars entered the national championship as the most experienced team as this is the 22nd appearance for the squad winning three national titles, finishing second five times and claiming third three times. The Cougars now hold an 84-44 all-time record at nationals.

Columbia would lead the entire first set with Biola keeping things close for most of the game. With the Cougars up 20-19, a kill by Polina Severina sparked a 5-0 run allowing the Cougars to pull away with the 25-19 first set win. Mikah Simpson would put the game away with her team leading 48^th service ace.

With the Cougars trailing 8-6 in set two, the Eagles used a 5-1 run to gain separation, making the score 13-7. The Cougars battled their way back to grab a 15-14 lead, scoring eight of the next nine points. The lead changed hands five times and would be tied five more times from there, but the Cougars would be able to hang on for the 25-22 second game victory on a kill by Penny Liu.

Columbia was forced to play from behind in set three as the Eagles jumped out to a 13-5 lead. The Cougars cut the deficit to three with a 5-1 run to make it 14-11, but four straight points by the Eagles extended their lead back out to seven. The deficit would be too difficult to overcome as the Eagles went on to win set three by a score of 25-20.

The Eagles won set four 25-20 after hitting a match high 0.325 while holding the Cougars to 0.175 hitting. Errors plagued Columbia as they committed nine total compared to just two by Biola.

The fifth set was tightly contested throughout, but with the score tied at 14, the Eagles would commit two errors to allow Columbia to pull away with the thrilling 16-14 win to take the match 3-2.

"We practice to compete in tight games like this and it paid off tonight," said head coach Melinda Wrye-Washington. "Biola was a very good blocking team and very talented at every position which put the pressure on us."

The Cougars hit 0.126 for the game while posting 61 kills, 59 assists, 68 digs and four aces. Liu finished with a double-double recording 25 kills and 11 digs while Maria Franco chipped in 10 kills of her own. Sashiko Heredia led all players with 51 assists to go along with a match high 16 digs.  Mikah Simpson had 15 digs and two service aces while Sasha Robinson also finished in double figures with 10 digs.

Biola hit 0.151 for the night and were led by Alyssa Mason with 16 kills.

The Cougars will square off against top-ranked Lindsey Wilson tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. in a rematch of their September 5^th meeting in a fight to advance to the championship game. Lindsey Wilson defeated Columbia 3-1 in the 2015 Hampton Inn Classic.

Columbia College will show the game live in the Bixby Lecture Hall tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. All fans are welcome! Contact Kim Kliegel for more info: 875-7433

You can also tune in live tomorrow 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/