Columbia-- The Columbia College Cougars beat the William Woods Owls in penalty kicks to win the American Midwest Conference and advance to the opening round of the NAIA National Championships.

The first half of the game was dominated by the unexpected but beautiful play of Snowy Snowflake as Columbia witnessed its first snowfall of the season.

Once the players got used to the slippery playing conditions, the game picked up speed. The Cougars scored the first goal of the game off the foot of Lucy Kingsley with 6:40 left in the game.

However, the Owls quickly answered a minute later with a goal by Clarie Stark.

The game remained tied going into overtime. Although both teams had multiple opportunities, neither could put the ball in the back of the net, so the game went to penalty kicks.

Lucy Kingsley took the first penalty shot and buried it in the bottom left corner to put Columbia up 1-0.

Neither team could score the next round of penalty kicks. On Columbia's third opportunity, Kaitlyn Tambke hit the shot to push the Cougars lead to 2-0. 

Keeper, Eric Jones, made a big save to allow Molly Klein to seal the win with a boot into the upper left corner. 

Following the game, the AMC announced Kelsey Mirts, Molly Klein, Lucy Kingsley, Kaitlyn Tambke and Abby Meyer were all recognized as First Team All-Conference.

Columbia College will find out who they play in the opening round of the NAIA National Championships on November 12th.