Columbia, Mo. – Tomorrow night the Columbia College volleyball team will take on sixth ranked Park (Mo.) University in the AMC Game of the Week. Despite getting off to a slow start, the Cougars have been playing great volleyball as of late and their efforts were recognized this week when they broke into the Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches Top 25 Poll at #25. This is the first time Columbia College has been in the top 25 poll since they were ranked number one at the beginning of the season.
Offensively for Columbia, as goes
Peiyi Liu, so go the Cougars. Liu, the reigning NAIA Player of the Year, has 372 kills on the season, and she is averaging 4.18 kills per set – both of which are nearly double anyone else on her team – and she leads the Cougars with a .413 hitting percentage. Both
Eirini Chatziefstratiadou (197) and
Caroline Clifford (194) are knocking on the door of 200 kills, but Liu is the key. Setter
Sashiko Heredia has nearly 1,000 assists on the season, and her ability to distribute the ball within the offense will be key if the Cougars want to pull the upset.
The Pirates have their own returning NAIA Player of the Year – 2014 honoree Wendy Romero – and much like Liu, she has been the focal point of the Pirates' offense. Romero has 397 kills for the year, and she has also added 53 blocks. The Pirates lead the NAIA in team hitting percentage at .313, and they have 192.5 blocks – 31 more than anyone else in the AMC. Park has lost only one match all season, and since that match they have won 20 in a row, posting a 60-5 set record in those matches.
The series record since Park re-joined the AMC for the 2009 season has been heavily lopsided in favor of Columbia. The Cougars have won 13 of the 14 meetings in that time, and during that span of time, the Pirates have never beaten Columbia in Parkville. Park's lone victory since re-joining the AMC was a three set win at Columbia on October 8, 2014 which came as a part of the Pirates' perfect 40-0 regular season that culminated in the NAIA title.
This game was picked as the game of the week because it not only features the last two NAIA National Champions, but it will set up the scenario for how the 2016 AMC regular season title race will play out. If Columbia wins, then the possibility of a three-team tie atop the AMC standings between Park, Columbia, and Missouri Baptist University remains very real, whereas a Park victory would set up a winner take all match between the Pirates and Spartans on October 27 in St. Louis.
The game is set to begin tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in Parkville, Missouri.
