Sioux City, Iowa – This evening the Columbia College women's volleyball team was back in action when they took on Dordt (Iowa) College in the 2016 NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship Quarterfinals. The Cougars were defeated in four sets (25-21, 23-25, 18-25, 17-28) by the Defenders and finish their season with an overall record of 30-12. With the win, Dordt improves to 27-7 on the season and will advance to play in the semifinals.
In the first set of the match, the Cougars got off to a slow start as they had trouble handling the Defenders serves to start the game. They found themselves down 7-1 in the set before coming alive and scoring the next three points to get their momentum going. Both sides battled back and forth for most of the set but with the score tied at 15, the Cougars were able to go on a 10-6 and took the first game 25-21 to go up 1-0 in the match.
Columbia College had the momentum going into the second set and it showed as they were able to jump out to an early 4-1 lead. However, the Defenders battled back and quickly tied the game at five. The game went back and forth as the set progressed but the Defenders were able to pull away toward the end and took the second game by a final score of 25-23.
The third set started out with the Defenders scoring the first five points of the game to take an early lead. The Cougars quickly called a timeout to regroup but Dordt was determined to get the victory as they went on an 8-2 run later in the game and held a 20-8 lead late in the set. Despite being down by a big margin, the Cougars never gave up in the game and went on a 6-0 run to get back into the set. They did their best to catch up to the Defenders but ultimately their lead was too big to overcome and Dordt took the third set 25-18 to go up 2-1 in the match.
Dordt College had all the momentum going into the fourth set and jumped all over the Cougars from the opening serve. They went on a 6-1 run to start the game and jumped out to an early 10-3 lead. However, the Cougars bounced back quickly and answered with a 6-0 run of their own to get back into the game. Both teams exchanged the next few points but the Defenders were able to close out the game on an 8-4 run and took the fourth set 25-17.
Columbia College was led by
Peiyi Liu who had 18 kills and
Eirini Chatziefstratiadou who finished with 11 kills in the match. Additionally
Sashiko Heredia finished the contest with 42 assists and
Sami Meyer led the team with 10 digs.
The Defenders will take on the winner between Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) College and Midland (Neb.) University tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. in Sioux City, Iowa.
