Cowley volleyball to play for national championship

The top-seeded Cowley College volleyball team is one match away from history after defeating No. 12-seed Pensacola State (FL) 25-14, 25-15, 32-30 in the semifinals of the NJCAA Division II Volleyball National Championships played Friday in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Cowley will face second-seed Scottsdale Community College (28-0) in Saturday's title game at 6 p.m. The championship match will pit a pair of unbeaten teams against each other.

Unlike its first two victories at the national tourney, this time Cowley cruised to wins of the first two sets before running into trouble in the third. Pensacola State forced Cowley to call timeout with the Lady Tigers trailing 13-9 midway through the third set.

Cowley head coach Steven Gream called his second timeout of the set with the Lady Tigers trailing 19-16. Whatever was said in the huddle woke up his team as Cowley would score seven straight points to lead 23-21 following a kill by freshman Laura Bonomi.

Pensacola would rally and the teams began trading points before Cowley won 32-30 on a kill by sophomore Anna Kiss.

Bonomi had a double-double with 17 kills and 11 digs, while Kiss added 16 kills. Rossana Papa led the team with 41 assists to go along with six digs and sophomore libero Sadie Kabisch had a team-high 17 digs.

The winner of Saturday's title match will cap an unbeaten season and earn an NJCAA Division II National Championship for their school. Both, the Lady Tigers and Artichokes, have gone 3-0 at the tournament to advance to the title game with Scottdale knocking off third-seed Parkland in the semifinals.