Columbia College rolls past the Thunder

Columbia College (2-0, 2-0 Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association), which is currently ranked No. 2 in the NAIA poll, had several new faces involved in the offense in its thrashing of the No. 6 Thunder (4-3, 4-3).

“We had a lot of guys who hadn’t played together come out that first match,” said Columbia setter Mike Taylor. “We quickened up our offense a little bit and that kept (the Thunder) on their heels.”

The Cougars were led by the blocking and spiking abilities of freshman sensation Winder Montano, who had a match-high 22 kills.

Montano started the match at a furious pace. The former Venezuelan Junior National team member scored four of the Cougars first six points by finishing off short and long sets from Taylor with vicious spikes over the Tri-State defenders.

Montano also finished the match the way he started by scoring four of Columbia’s final five points.

“Winder will always be our go-to swinger,” said co-coach Wayne Kreklow. “But we learned today that we don’t have to rely on him to win matches.”

Unlike their close match against William Woods on Tuesday, the Cougars were able to spread their attack by using outside hitter K.C. Trimble (nine kills), middle blocker Kyle Green (seven kills), and Ivan Toptchivsky (six kills) with Taylor (39 assists) orchestrating the offense.

“When you have so many guys who can hit so many balls it makes it easy to deliver to them,” Taylor said.

“The guys out there were a little more relaxed,” Kreklow said. “When you can play a lot of people it’s good for everybody.”

The deciding factor in this match was the attack percentage of Columbia. The Cougars scored on 43 percent of their attacks, compared to the Thunder’s measly 5.4 percent.

“We had difficulty scoring points because Columbia is an excellent blocking team,” said Tri-State coach John Wilder. “If it wasn’t their blocking it was their floor defense.”

Tri-State was led by outside hitter Ronnie Eriksson’s nine kills and setter Jon Metzel’s 15 assists.

The Thunder were plagued by the mishandling of sets by both Metzel and John Porta, who finished with 13 assists. On several occasions Thunder attackers mistimed their jumps and whiffed on kill opportunities.

“We have to work on our passing,” said Wilder. “We can’t play the way we have been playing and expect to beat a team like Columbia.”

On Friday the Cougars will head to Parkville to take on No. 5 Park University in their first MIVA road match. They return home Sunday to face Quincy University.

“Today we had balance in our attack,” Kreklow said. “Everyone played well.”

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