Campbellsville University defended its National Christian College Athletic Association Mid-East title with back-to-back 3-0 victories Saturday in Lookout Mountain, Ga. The second was a 25-20, 29-27, 25-18 win over King College to advance to the NCCAA National Tournament to be held Dec. 2-5 in Kissimmee, Fla.

"I told the girls that for the first time in probably two months, I saw them have fun today," CU head coach Randy LeBleu said. "It's a good sign, because sometimes at this time of the year, teams are ready to be done. We've played a long season. Forty-five matches is a long season and now we'll have to wait two weeks before playing again. I hope they really want to go and compete at nationals and bring home a title for the school."

The Lady Tigers started off slow in the match, playing close through the first set before taking a small lead in the second set. Though leading most of the second set, King rallied to make it a game, tying it up 25-25. It took four more points before CU could put it away.

"I thought the game plan we had defensively was great. We frustrated their outside hitters by blocking them," LeBleu said. "The second game got to the point that we could not get two points back-to-back. The real problem was we'd give the ball back to them for nothing at times. We had 10 missed serves in the first two sets."

But in the third set, CU stepped up its game, beginning with the back line.

"They were prepared. They knew what they were going to do with the ball," LeBleu said. "The win is a testament to our back row, which passed the ball really well today."

Whitney Haynes collected six of her 11 kills in the third set to help lead CU to victory, while Brooke Marcum had nine. Caroline Martin led CU with 20 digs, 36 assists, five kills and two aces. Shannon Cahil was second defensively with 16 digs and eight kills. Jovana Koprivicia had 12 digs and two aces, while Caitlin Dresing had 10 digs. CU had five blocks as a team.

CU (32-13) awaits the pairings for the NCCAA National Tournament.