Belleville, Ill. – Tonight the seventh ranked Columbia College volleyball team was back on the court when they traveled to Belleville, Illinois, to take on Lindenwood University-Belleville (Ill.) in an AMC matchup. The Cougars, who swept through their first two games of AMC play, were unable to defeat the Lynx as they fell in four sets (20-25, 16-25, 25-17, 25-27) to drop to 12-3 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.
In the first set of the match, Columbia College came out and had a tough time from the opening serve allowing the Lynx to jump out to an early 9-5 lead. The Cougars battled back and were able to cut Lindenwood-Belleville's lead to one midway through the set, but that was as close as they would get as the Lynx took a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 victory.
After dropping the second set 25-16, the Cougars were able to bounce back in the third game and matched the Lynx point-for-point. With the score tied at 13, Columbia College was able to end the set on a 12-4 run and cut the Lynx lead to 2-1 in the match with a 25-17 victory.
In the fourth set, the Cougars were able to jump out to an early 10-6 lead. They continued to play well as the set progressed and found themselves leading 18-16 late in the game. However, the Lynx never let the Cougars get too far in front and with the score tied at 25 they were able to win the final two points to hand Columbia their first conference loss of the season with a 27-25 defeat.
The Cougars were led by Caroline Clifford who had a team high 11 kills. In addition, Yamilet Velazquez added a team high 31 assists and 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.
The Cougars are back on the court on Wednesday, September 20th when they play host to the St. Louis College of Pharmacy (Mo.) Eutectics in an AMC match. The game is set to start at 7 p.m. at the Southwell Athletic Complex.
