Orange City, Iowa - Columbia College picked up two wins on the final day of the 2015 Red Raider Classic. The Cougars swept Ashford University 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-21) and defeated No. 12 Northwestern University in a five-set battle, 3-2 (22-25,15-25,25-14,25-23,15-13). After the wins, Columbia's overall record improves to 3-1.
 
In the first game of the day, the Cougars were dominant early on in the first set and took large leads at 10-21 and 17-24. The Saints would mount a comeback to pull within one at 24-23, and would cause Columbia to take a timeout. After the timeout, Maria Franco would put the ball down to give the Cougars the first set win.
 
In the second set the Saints and Cougars battled back and forth with no team leading by more than five points. With the score tied at 23-23 late in the set, Eirini Chatziefstratiadou and Polina Severina rattled off two kills to win the second set 25-23. Both team battled hard throughout the third set, but the Cougars were able to hold on for the sweep.
 
The Cougars had 34 total kills against the Saints led by opposite attacker, Penny Liu who had 13 kills on 19 total attack attempts. Sashiko Sanay Heredia chipped in 34 assists and Mikah Simpson led the team with seven digs.
 
Columbia hit .344 in its combat against the 12^th-ranked Red Raiders, led by Liu with 18 kills. Chatziefstratiadou also hit double digits with 15 kills.
 
The Cougars dropped the first two sets, but would come back to win the third 25-14. Northwestern led 22-19 in the fourth set, however, Columbia scored the next five points after taking advantage of a timeout, holding off the Red Raiders 25-23 to force a fifth set.
 
Columbia sped out to an 8-3 lead and led 9-4 before Northwestern scored 6-of-the-next-7 points to knot the score at 10. The two teams would trade points to tie the score at 11, but Columbia surged ahead for good with successive points and held on for the 15-13 win.
 
Heredia lofted up a match high 52 assists while Liu and Simpson had 14 digs apiece.
 
Columbia returns to action next weekend when they host the Hampton Inn Classic at Southwell Complex.  The Cougars will face No. 19 Wayland Baptist University at 3 p.m. and No. 4 Viterbo University at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 4^th. Then on Saturday, September 5^th Columbia will face No. 23 Lewis-Clark State College at 11 a.m. and No. 7 Lindsey Wilson College at 3 p.m.