FULTON, Mo. – The William Woods University volleyball team defeated Lindenwood University-Belleville in the quarterfinal round of the American Midwest Conference Tournament Tuesday evening, 3-1. The win moves the Owls into the semifinal round with a 20-15 record.

"I am really proud of the way the girls bounced back after the first set," stated Head Coach Ashley Nehls. "It was obvious they had some jitters, and they worked their way through it together. Lindenwood-Belleville has some heavy hitters and I think our defense did a great job keeping the ball alive and giving our setters opportunities to run the offense."

The Owls will now face undefeated No. 1 Park in the semifinal round on Friday, November 9. First serve is slated for 4 p.m. at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. 
 
Game Flow
LUB took an early 8-3 lead to start the match, but the Owls answered with a 6-0 run fueled by three consecutive aces from Kayton Coffee to take a 9-8 lead.

LUB went back ahead and pushed out a 19-12 lead. The Owls closed the gap to four, 22-18, but were unable to come from behind and lost 25-20.

Despite LUB having a slight advantage to start set two, the Owls tied it up at 6-6 with a Tory Wiley kill. Two LUB errors and an ace from Brooke Reed gave the Owls a 9-6 lead.

The Owls held on to the lead, and back-to-back blocks from Jacyln Zahn and Remie Johnson put the Owls up 18-14. A handful of WWU errors threatened their lead, but a kill from Kate Doerhoff put them back up by three, 23-20.

A kill from Wiley put the Owls at set point, and a LUB ball handling error ended the set with a 25-21 win.

The Owls jumped to a 9-2 lead to start set three with kills from three players and aces from Rayleen Rivera and Tori Rosemann. The Owls maintained the lead and a small 4-0 run with two kills from Doerhoff doubled LUB's score, 18-9.

LUB made a late-set run, scoring six points, but the Owls took a 2-1 match lead with the 25-18 win when LUB served into the net on set point.

The Owl's momentum carried into set four as they took a 6-1 lead. LUB stayed within five until the Owls blasted a 10-1 run to dominate the match, 25-11.
 
By The Numbers
.355 – The Owls hit over .350 in sets two, three and four.
28 – Remie Johnson finished the match with 28 assists.
19 – Jessica Jensen led the floor with 19 digs.
12 – Kate Doerhoff and Tory Wiley each put down 12 kills in the four set match.
9 – The team recorded nine blocks at the net.
6 – Jaclyn Zahn finished with six blocks.
5 – Kayton Coffee have five aces, three of which were consecutive in the first set.