Cougars End Season in Quarterfinals of NAIA National Tournament

Sioux City, Iowa – The 12th-ranked Cougars of Columbia College ended their post season run tonight in the quarterfinals of the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Tournament. 

Columbia ends its season with a 32-7 record overall, marking the 34th season that the Cougars have posted 30+ wins in a season. 

After falling behind 0-2 to #3 Eastern Oregon University, the Cougars battled back to take sets three and four to push the match to a decisive fifth set. 

In the fifth set, the Cougars took an early 4-2 lead with kills from Alayna Rooks, Agatha Emanuelle, and Abby Massengill. Down 4-5, Eastern Oregon sparked a five-point scoring run to take a 9-5 lead. 

After a timeout from Columbia, the Cougars began to chip away at the deficit and used kills from Luisa Ferreira and Agatha Emanuelle to do so. 

Down 9-13, Columbia would call its final timeout of the set to try to make one final push. 

A block from Agatha Emanuelle and Sude Gundogan was followed by an attacking error from EOU, making it 11-13 and forcing a timeout from Eastern Oregon. 

From there, a kill from Ellie Rockers brought Columbia to within one, 12-13, but back-to-back points for Eastern Oregon ended the match, 12-15. 

Columbia had career-high performances from two players in that of Agatha Emanuelle and Magdalena Bostal. 

Agatha Emanuelle had career-highs in kills with 13, and in total blocks with eight. 

Magdalena Bostal had a career-high (and match-high) 36 digs. 

Alayna Rooks led the Cougars with 16 kills, while Ellie Rockers finished with a double-double of 13 kills and 19 digs, while also picking up two service aces. 

Abby Massengill hit .321% with 12 kills. Luisa Ferreira totaled 58 assists to go along with 25 digs. 

Clara Gower contributed 10 digs. 

The dynamic duo of outside hitters for Eastern Oregon, Sade Williams and Keira Vaughn, finished with 20 and 27 kills, respectively.