FULTON, Mo. -- The William Woods University volleyball team wraps up its two-match conference homestand on Thursday as they host the defending American Midwest Conference champion, Columbia College. First serve is set for 7 p.m. at Anderson Arena.
The Owls come into tonight's match with a 4-11 record, but more importantly stand at an even .500 in the AMC at 1-1.The Cougars are riding a modest four-game winning-streak to improve their overall record to 10-1. Columbia is a perfect 4-0 in the conference. The Cougars ranked third in the latest NAIA volleyball polls and their only loss on the season came against no. 1 University of Texas at Brownville.
Last Time Out
William Woods put up a strong effort against AMC foe Park University on Tuesday. The young Owls seemed to take another step in the right direction as they were in every set before losing 1-3 (26-28, 23-25, 25-20, 21-25). Freshman outside hitter/ middle blocker
Emily Becker led the offensive attack for WWU as she posted 19 kills for the match. The mark ranked as the third-highest total in program history for a four-set match.
Defense, Defense, Defense!
Defense has been the calling card for Coach
Monica Herschelman's 2012 squad. The Owls leds the AMC in total digs with 917, (17.3 digs/set), while senior libero
Amanda Henley tops the AMC in digs/set with 5.3 and is ranked 21st nationally.
Learning On The Fly
Having 10 freshmen on any team can be tough, but these Owls are learning to fly quickly on the attack. Two freshman lead WWU in the top two hitting catagories as
Emily Becker leads in kills with 148. While middle blocker
Emma Aschenbrenner ranks first on the team in hitting percentage at a .222 mark.
Serve And Receive
Three Owls have posted double-digit service ace totals on the season. Senior libero
Amanda Henley leads the way for William Woods with 14 connections. Becker comes in second with 13 and senior setter
Sarah Wehmeyer has 11. WWU has also been an excellent team receiving the serve with a team mark of .922 led by senior defensive specialist
Emily Nolte with a .988 success rate.
A Look at Columbia College
Columbia College comes into tonight's match boasting the top two hitters in the AMC. Outside hitter Carol Berger (.435/105 kills) ranks first while middle blocker Kahoriz Feliz (.422/142 kills) comes in second. The duo also ranks third and fourth respectively in the NAIA in hitting percentage. Preventing those two from getting into a rhythm will be the task for the Owls defense.
“If we can contain them to under a .200 hitting percentage and keep digging their attacks it should take some of their poise away, in turn it would really raise the confidence in our defense,” Herschelman said.
As a team, the Cougars rank first in the AMC in hitting percentage (.315), kills/set (16.2), assists/set (14.7) and digs/set (17.0). They also rank first in the NAIA in kills and assists per match and third in hitting percentage.
The Cougars are in the midst of an impressive winning streak. With a two-match sweep of Williams Baptist last Saturday, Columbia was able to extend their regular-season conference winning streak to 142 matches.
Previous Matches
The Owls and Cougars faced each other on the court three times last season with Columbia College sweeping the season series 3-0. Columbia ended WWU's season last year with an 0-3 (15-25, 13-25, 11-25) AMC Semifinal loss in Columbia.
Coaches Corner
“Columbia is a pretty historic program; they are top ten in the nation every single year. They stay disciplined and put the ball away when it's possible. Coach Mary Wrye-Washington has really built the culture of winning, and that is something that we are wanting at William Woods. We want to carry on that tradition like Columbia has been able to.”
