NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Lady Tiger volleyball came out swinging tonight against Indiana University Southeast, picking up its first sweep of the season, 3-0 (25-22, 25-18 and 25-13).
 
Maria Coelho sparked CU with huge right-arm finishes all night and ended with a career-high 14 kills. Annija Abolina pitched in with 12 kills, while Inoa Fields dished out 39 of the 41 assists. Katie Johnson and Julia Fonseca added another seven kills, while Jessie Stone had two as well.
 
Campbellsville battled all night and it started midway through the first set. After a timeout by IU Southeast with the Lady Tigers leading 16-14, the Grenadiers rallied to take their final lead of the opening set with three-straight kills – their last lead until taking a brief advantage, 21-20, in the third.
 
That's when Coelho and Abolina stepped up and sparked the Lady Tigers when they needed a boost. Coelho knotted the first set at 17, then Fonseca gave CU the lead with a block, 18-17. After an attacking error by IU Southeast, Coelho came through with a big right-arm kill giving the Lady Tigers their largest lead, 20-17, and repeated that to push CU ahead, 21-18. That's when Abolina took over and scored three of the final four CU points, giving the Lady Tigers a 1-0 advantage in the match.
 
The second set had plenty of runs but started and ended in favor of the Lady Tigers. After taking an early 6-0 lead and pushing that to 9-3, IU Southeast rallied for three of the next four points cutting the deficit to four, 10-6, and forcing coach Amy Zink to call a timeout.
 
The Grenadiers would rally again, going on a 5-1 run and knotting the set at 11 but that was as far as the Lady Tigers would let it go as Coelho and Fonseca gave CU a much needed spark once again. CU ended the set by doubling up IU Southeast, 14-7 and taking a 2-0 advantage in the set, 25-18.
 
The Lady Tigers looked as if they would run away with the third set, leading 9-2 and scoring 23 of a total 31 points since the score was 11-11 in the second. But IU Southeast wouldn't go down without a fight.
 
The Grenadiers forced Zink to call another timeout by going on a 10-7 run and cutting CU's lead to just four, 16-12. But the Lady Tigers picked up three quick points to take a 19-12 advantage and get a little momentum back. Then IUS didn't give in as easily as CU wanted, going on an 8-1 run and tying the third set at 20.
 
Coelho came to the rescue once again. She finished the match with four of the final five CU points to complete her career night.
 
Campbellsville stays on the road this weekend as it travels to the Indiana Wesleyan University Tournament. The Lady Tigers will play Trinity Christian (noon) and Judson (5:00) on Friday before finishing the tournament with Indiana Wesleyan (noon) and Taylor University (5:00) on Saturday. Indiana Wesleyan is only providing stats for games the Wildcats are playing in, so only one CU match will have stats.