The Culver-Stockton College women's volleyball team captured the final two sets of a five-set thriller with William Woods University to earn its first victory of the season iWednesday night at Charles Field House. 

The victory also was the first career victory for newly hired Head Coach Audrye Alejandro-Rivera in just his second match. The Wildcats improve to 1-1 on the season.

After winning the first set, the Wildcats dropped the net two sets to the Owls, who entered the match with a 2-0 overall record. 

However, the Wildcats used a strong attack game in the final two sets to overcome the deficit and pick up a 25-21, 19-25, 20-25, 25-15, 15-11 victory.

Much like in Saturday's loss to Waldorf, the Wildcats seemingly got stronger as the match progressed. C-SC's two strongest hitting games of the match were in sets four and five.

The Wildcats hit at a .259 clip in the fourth set, while in the deciding fifth set had a .316 attack percentage. C-SC had just six hitting errors combined in the final two sets after recording 23 errors int he first three sets.

By contrast, the Owls struggled at the net in the final two sets and finished with a .107 percentage overall. WWU had more errors than kills in the fourth set and hit at a .091 clip in the final set, making five errors against seven kills on 22 attempts.

The Wildcats had three players reach double figures in kills with Addie Force leading the way with 12 terminations in her Wildcat debut. Abby Godwin and Zoe Irvin totaled 10 kills each. Lauren Bloom and Lael Temple were the table setters with 24 and 18 set assists apiece. The Wildcats also had 11 service aces in the match with Ashleigh Brawley, Victoria Pollard and Sidnee Schwarz totaling three aces each.

Defense was also a big story with the Wildcats registering 13 team blocks in the match. Brawley was a difference maker with 11 block assists, while Godwin had one solo and five block assists. In the back row, Kyla Ellis recorded a match-high 24 digs with Pollard also reaching double digits with 11 digs. 

C-SC (1-1) will take a week off before traveling to Oskaloosa, Iowa, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 30-31, to play in the William Penn Tournament. The Wildcats are scheduled to face Waldorf in a rematch of the season opener at 1 p.m. Friday, and that will be followed by a match with St. Francis (Ill.) at 3 p.m.