The Lady Tigers win their opening game at the Volleyball National Championships

The top-seeded Cowley College volleyball team improved its record to 38-0 on the season with a 25-21, 25-20, 25-17 win over 17^th-seed North Dakota State College of Science Wednesday in its opening game of the NJCAA Division II Volleyball National Championships played in Cedar Rapids, IA.

"We started a little slow. Hadn't played on the court since districts plus had some nerves," Cowley head coach Steven Gream said. "NDSCS came to play and already had one match under their belt to be ready for the match. We managed to clean things up and finished strong at the end of set one, end of set two, and then throughout set three."

The Lady Tigers advance to take on eighth-seed Illinois Central Community College on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the national tournament.

Sophomore Anna Kiss led Cowley with 15 kills, while freshmen Sara Puskas and Laura Bonomi added 14 kills apiece.

"We balanced our attack with tempo once our passing cleaned up to help us make runs and win the match," Gream said. "That, combined with our serve, really caused issues with North Dakota to rub their offense and again allowed us to push to finish the match."

Rossana Papa shined with 45 assists, and Sadie Kabisch had a team-high 19 digs.