KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- With a first-day sweep, Campbellsville University volleyball is only one win away from advancing to Saturday's semifinal round of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Division I Volleyball Tournament.
The Lady Tigers (32-10) followed a morning win over King College with another 3-0 victory in the afternoon over Trinity Christian College (25-18, 27-25, 25-20) to take a 2-0 lead in Pool B.
The defending national champion Lady Tigers breezed through the first set en route to a 25-18 win, but let up late in the second set. The TCC Trolls turned a 20-16 Campbellsville lead into a 22-22 tie, but Campbellsville held on for the 27-25 win.
The hole got a little deeper in the third set, as Campbellsville fell behind early, 11-7. As the Lady Tigers called timeout, assistant coach Billy Gregory took the reins of putting things in perspective.
"We're doing this to ourselves. Make them beat us," Gregory instructed.
As he returned to his seat, senior Caroline Martin followed with more leadership to her teammates.
"Shake it off, whatever it is, and let's play," Martin emphasized.
Breaking the time out, CU freshman Kelly Moyer collected a quick kill. The point stopped a Trinity Christian rally and cut the deficit to three, 11-8. TCC was still in control though, building a 16-9 lead, however that's when the Lady Tigers really went to work. CU went on a 10-1 run to take the lead and pull away for a 25-20 win.
"We haven't had games like that. When we usually get in a slump and a hole, we can't get ourselves out of it. Gregory and I were talking, and even through that game, we've seen so much growth in the girls that we have not seen all year. Both games today, so many positive things have happened. I was overly impressed that they could come out from below and win," CU head coach Amy Eckenfels said.
Moyer finished the match with 10 kills and Monica Chernichan led the offensive charge with 12. She also had three solo blocks. Samantha James led the team with four blocks, as CU improved from having only three blocks in the first match of the day to having 13 blocks combined against TCC.
Martin collected another double-double with 32 assists and 10 digs, while Audrey Sanders led the defense with 13 digs. Shannon Cahill also had 10 digs.
Following the match, Gregory led the postgame talk with the team, and spoke about "the moment." Asking the team what "the moment" meant to them when it comes to volleyball, freshman Lexis Lloyd answered "When we come together to do our job." Her teammates followed with similar positive answers, which define their comeback. However, Gregory described his "moment" is the decline and hole that CU struggled with at times in the regular season.
"Don't settle for my moment anytime," Gregory said as he encouraged the team on their hard work.
Campbellsville returns to the court Friday to play host school Southeastern University at noon and will face Mount Vernon Nazarene University at 4 p.m. in a rematch of the 2009 national championship.
Live Scoring of all matches can be viewed on the NCCAA Web site, here.
Live Video of all matches may also be viewed for free by clicking here.
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