ADRIAN, Mich. – Sonia Flendrich posted her second straight match with double figure kills as she led the team with 15 on Saturday afternoon in the Lady Tiger's 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 25-17, 20-25, 15-12) win. They improved to 7-1 on the season while Huntington dropped to 3-5.
Kaite Johnson also had 14 kills as the only other player in double figures.
Paige Merrick recorded 43 assists on the afternoon and
Jaimie Thompson led the way in digs with 23.
Yelysaveta Sharkova had a pair of solo blocks and was in on four block assists.
Trailing Huntington 8-5 early in the first set the Lady Tigers went on 9-2 run to pull ahead 14-10. Three Lady Tiger kills and four service aces led the run that put Campbellsville ahead. Huntington would tie the match on two separate occasions at 20-20 and 21-21 but the Lady Tigers would score the final four points of the match. Three of them were attacking errors by Huntington.
After Huntington tied the match at 1-1 with the 25-20 win in set two the Lady Tigers jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the third set. CU started the set out with five kills from five different players as
Maria Coelho, Flendrich, Merrick, Johnson and
Irene Baroni all contributed kills and Thompson had a pair of aces. Three points would be as close as Huntington could get at 14-11, the Lady Tigers then finished on an 11-6 run to win 25-17.
Huntington then forced a fifth and final set between the two teams when it defeated CU, 25-20. The fifth set was a set filled with runs as the Lady Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Huntington answered with a 6-0 run to take a 6-4 lead, that was followed by a 5-0 run by CU. Huntington battled to tie the set at 12-12 but a Sharkova kill followed by Merrick ace and Coelho kill gave the Lady Tigers a 3-0 run to end the set with a 15-12 win.
Merrick and Johnson were both honored as members of the Siena Heights Invitational All-Tournament Team following the match. Merrick finished with 163 assists and 37 digs in four matches while Johnson had 48 kills and 38 digs. Merrick was also named Co-MVP along with Sydney Ritz from Spring Arbor.
The Lady Tigers finish off the Siena Heights Invitational with a 4-0 record. They are back in action on Tuesday night as they open up Mid-South Conference play at the University of Pikeville at 7 p.m.
