BLUEFIELD, Va. — Tiger volleyball earned its first win of its short inaugural season with a straight-set victory over Bluefield College on Wednesday night (25-20, 25-9, 25-20).
 
Campbellsville (1-3) never let Bluefield lead in either of the three sets and dominated for the most part of the night.
 
Rafael Cruz led the Tigers with 13 kills and also served up two aces. CU finished the night with nine aces combined led by Adam Conklin's three.
 
In the first set, CU started on the match on a 6-0 run but Bluefield settled down and cut the lead to just one, 11-10. Cruz sparked the Tigers with one of his three first-set kills and CU ended up pushing its lead to five, 18-13.
 
Even though the next 14 points were split, the Tigers held the advantage throughout.
 
In the second set, it was all Campbellsville. CU sprinted out to an 8-1 lead before Bluefield tried to stop the momentum with a timeout. It did not work. The Tigers then pushed their lead to nine, 14-5, before another Rams timeout.
 
After leading 11-5, CU kept the gas pedal to the floor and ended the second frame on a 14-4 run.
 
The third set ended a lot closer than it really was but the Tigers pulled through for their first sweep in program history. Bluefield had four chances in to take its first lead in any set but the Tigers stood their ground.
 
Leading by three, 10-7, the Tigers went on a 9-4 run to push their lead to 19-11. But then it was all Bluefield for 11 of the next 14 points. The Rams went on an 11-3 run and cut CU's lead to two, 22-20. But it was a service error giving the Tigers a 23-20 lead and CU sealed the sweep with two consecutive points.
 
Overall, each team finished with 11 service errors but the Tigers countered that with nine aces. Bluefield finished with just one ace.
 
The Rams also hit -.194 compared to .154 for the Tigers.
 
Campbellsville now hosts St. Andrews on Friday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. ET in the Powell Athletic Center. The Tigers will have a pair of matches on Saturday in CU's Gosser Gymnasium.