Lady Tigers open defense of their title with win over Harford

In a battle of unbeaten teams, the top-seed Cowley College volleyball team took down 16^th-seed Harford Community College 25-14, 25-16, 25-16 in the Lady Tigers opening match at the NJCAA Division II Volleyball National Championships played Wednesday in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Cowley improves its record to 37-0, while the Fighting Owls are now 23-1. The Lady Tigers, winners of 78 matches in a row, advance to face ninth-seed Illinois Central on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, Cowley fell behind 2-0 in set one before scoring 15 of the following 16 points to lead 15-3. After settling in, the Lady Tigers went on to the 25-14 win in the opening set.

Cowley would lead set two 8-3 before Harford rallied to take a 13-11 lead midway through the set. The Lady Tigers responded by scoring eight of the next nine points and went on to the 25-16 victory.

Set three was again close for a while, with Cowley clinging to an 11-9 lead before using a 10-1 run to bust the set open en route to a 25-16 win.

Cowley's serve proved too much for Harford as the Lady Tigers finished with 15 aces, five of which came from sophomore Lu Ceroni.

Sophomore Sara Puskus had a match-high 20 kills, and freshman Josci Buckley added 15 kills.

On a night where Laura Bonomi was held to only four kills, the sophomore outside hitter made up for it by finishing with a team-high 14 digs.

The winner of Thursday's match will advance to play in Friday's semifinals at 4 p.m.