PIKEVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville volleyball struggled at times, but pulled out a 32-30 first-set win en route to a 3-0 victory tonight at the University of Pikeville, 32-30, 25-19, 25-7.
It was the first of a Friday/Saturday Mid-South Conference road trip. Campbellsville won its seventh match in eight tries after losing to Georgetown on Sept. 12.
The match started with a nail bitter of a first set. Campbellsville came out swinging, as Giselle Hernandez was the popular target for setter Krista Mihelsone but Hernandez seemed a little over-anxious with her attempts early in the match and was missing long. Pikeville struggled at the beginning and was not able to get in any rhythm in their offensive attack. CU took an early lead and had only four points come from their own hands as UPike had six unforced errors, staking Campbellsville an early 10-6 lead.
The match went back and fourth for the next 13 points as CU won seven and UPike winning six.
"We could not get in any rhythm," said coach Amy Zink. "We were battling ourselves and not Pikeville."
But Pikeville started to struggle again as Campbellsville took the lead 17-12. After a timeout by UPike head coach Shannon Gassman, CU came out and let two points get away from them. A service error by Haley Bechtel on the serve out of the timeout and an ace by UPike's Sydney Morris kickstarted the Lady Bears for a run of their own.
The Lady Bears went on a 7-4 run to cut the Campbellsville lead to 21-19 and Zink called her first time out of the night to try and cool off the hot hands of Pikeville.
Coming out of the timeout, UPike won two points in a row off errors by CU, evening the score at 21 points apiece.
The middle portion of the set was in favor of Pikeville as they ended up winning 13 of 19 points to give the Lady Bears the first lead they would have (25-24) since they were up 4-3 early.
Campbellsville evened the score on the next play as senior Caitlin Dresing came up with the defensive play of the match, digging a big strike by Sydney Hall, leading to a CU point.
With the score tied at 30, Campbellsville seniors took control of the next two points as Hernandez had a kill down left side and Kelly Moyer ended the first set with her first of six aces on the night. Campbellsville won 32-30.
The second set was full of various runs on both benches. Campbellsville took the first point off a big left-handed kill by Jana Kortas and ended up taking a 4-0 early lead. But Gassman took an early timeout to calm down her young team.
UPike came out of the timeout with a 5-1 run of its own only to see CU came back with its own 5-1 run pushing the score to 10-5 in favor of Campbellsville.
Pikeville evened the score at 15 all, going on another big run of 10-5.
The score went to 21-18 in favor of Campbellsville and Gassman called her second timeout of the set.
The Lady Tigers would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the night as Moyer had her second and third aces on back-to-back plays.
"We want to dictate the pace of the game with our serves, and we struggled till the end of the second set," said Zink.
Kills by fellow seniors Daiane Souza and Rinata Aisena finished off the Lady Bears in the second set and killed any momentum that could have been started. CU won 25-19.
In the third set, Campbellsville took total control from the start. The Lady Tiger serves were on point and there wasn't anything Pikeville could do to stop them.
Set three was very similar to set for at the beginning as CU led 4-0 and Gassman called another timeout. But this time, the Lady Bears had no answers for the CU offensive attack.
Campbellsville took the momentum after the timeout and went on a 21-5 run through the third set to sweep its fourth match in five tries.
Mid-South Conference leader, Rinata Aisena led the Lady Tigers in kills for the 12th time this season. Souza chipped in with 10 kills, and Moyer had seven kills along with a team leading six aces. Kortas also had seven kills followed by Hernandez' six. Haley Bechtel and Jackie Schwieger also added one kill apiece.
Schwieger led CU with 33 assists, marking her fifth 30-plus assist game in 2013. Krista Mihelsone added eight assists.
Campbellsville will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at Bluefield College. The Lady Tigers will face off against the Lady Rams with a noon start time.
Live video and live stats will be provided at..
(http://www.bcrams.com/sports/2013/8/30/DEPT_0830135241.aspx?tab=livestreaming)
Also, Campbellsville Athletics will keep live updates throughout the match via Twitter @CvilleTigers. To Follow Lady Tiger volleyball on Twitter check out @CUTigerVball
SEASON NOTES:
With this win, Coach Amy Zink has a record of 99-42 during her 3-plus years at the helm of the Lady Tigers.
Rinata Aisena ranks fifth in NAIA D1 in kills per game (4.37), 23rd in blocks per game (1.100) and 35th in hitting percentage (.332)
Jackie Schwieger also ranks 41st in NAIA D1 in assists per game (9.370)
