Bourbonnais, Ill. – The 12
th ranked Columbia College volleyball team took the court this afternoon to compete in the 2019 Olivet Nazarene University Classic. The Cougars came out on top against Campbellsville University, defeating the Tigers 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 14-25, 25-18, 15-9), and Saint Xavier University, defeating the Cougars 3-1 (25-22, 26-24, 22-25, 25-14). Columbia is now 15-2 on the season.
Columbia had a great start in their first match against the Tigers as they tallied 17 kills for a 0.308 hitting percentage in the first set. The second and third set proved more challenging for the Cougars as they accumulated 17 errors to drop both sets to the Tigers. Columbia found a spark as they added a combined 26 kills in the final two sets and kept their errors below five in each set to win the match.
The Cougars were led by junior
Adianez Rivera who racked up 22 kills. In addition,
Sidney Branson and
Kiersten Anderson had 18 kills apiece,
Luisa Ferreira dished out 55 assists, and
Ellie Rockers picked up 17 digs.
In the second match against Saint Xavier, Columbia kept their momentum from the first game as they added a total of 59 kills for a hitting percentage of 0.310 while holding Saint Xavier at just 47 kills and a hitting percentage of 0.200. Columbia kept their errors at a minimum of 15 on the match while Saint Xavier had 21.
Anderson led the way in the second match with a total of 15 kills. Rivera added 12 kills while Branson totaled 11 kills. Luisa added another 48 assists on the day and Rockers had 17 digs.
Columbia returns to the court on Thursday, October 3 when they host William Woods University in an AMC matchup. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m.
