BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Lady Tigers split on day two of the Mid-South Conference Challenge after a 3-1 defeat from Reinhardt University and a 3-0 victory over Point University. Campbellsville now falls to 3-1 overall after two wins on day one of the weekend.
The Lady Tigers were led by
Yelyzaveta Sharkova and
Sutton Mason as each hitter was able to pick up 21 kills throughout both matches today.
Paige Merrick was also able to add 76 assists to her season totals.
Campbellsville 1 – Reinhardt- 3 (15-25, 18-25, 25-23, 20-25)
After a slow start, the Lady Tigers were unable to battle back, taking their first loss of the young season. Emily Charbonneau led the way for Reinhardt as she tallied 13 kills for the Eagles.
In the first set, the Lady Tigers battled back and forth with Reinhardt, as a 14-12 lead seemed to give Campbellsville a mid-set advantage. However, it was a 13-1 run powered by Charbonneau that proved to be crucial for the Eagles. During the run, Charbonneau tallied six of her game high 13 kills.
Set two proved to be much of the same as the Lady Tigers were unable to stop Reinhardt's momentum carried over from the latter half of the first set. After falling behind early in the set, Campbellsville was unable to battle back after a combined 10 errors in the set.
Nonetheless, the Lady Tigers came out firing in the third. After jumping out to an early 3-0 lead on a pair of kills by
Sutton Mason, the Lady Tigers then faltered and gave the Eagles an 8-1 run, falling behind 8-4. CU then stopped the Reinhardt run and started a 12-2 run of their own sparked by a string of four straight kills by
Irene Baroni,
Sutton Mason,
Paige Merrick, and
Sonia Flendrich. Reinhardt clawed back to cut the CU lead to one, but it was too late and the Lady Tigers captured set three 25-23.
Eight ties and four lead changes headline the fourth set as the Lady Tigers and Eagles fought back and forth. After an 8-8 draw, Campbellsville put together another quartet of kills hoping to develop some momentum and force a fifth set. However, Reinhardt stood firm, recaptured the momentum and never looked back, taking the set 25-20 and winning the match 3-1.
Overall, 22 attacking errors and 10 service errors haunted the Lady Tigers, creating a hole that became tough to fight out of. Individually, the Lady Tigers were led by 11 kills from Mason, with another 10 coming from Sharkova, most of which came on assists from sophomore setter
Paige Merrick as she tallied 39 of the team's 45 assists.
Campbellsville 3 – Point- 0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-19)
The first set seemed to provide the toughest battle for the Lady Tigers in game four of the MSC Crossover Challenge. In a set that provided 10 of matches total 11 ties, the Lady Tigers were able to grind out a 26-24 set win to start match four off strong.
Sophie Ball created the spark the Lady Tigers needed in the first as she picked up the first three kills for the team. It was then five kills and two aces from Sharkova that ultimately helped CU capture the first.
A set one victory gave the Lady Tigers the momentum they needed to carry-on for the remainder of the match. They entered set two and almost immediately jumped into a 16-2 run that created a gap that was too much for Point to handle, allowing the Lady Tigers to win the set 25-15.
The third set was much more of the same for the Lady Tigers as 20 kills in the set helped them lead wire to wire, earning a three set sweep over the Skyhawks.
The Lady Tigers was led by Sharkova and Sutton, who both tallied double digit kills.
Stela Velinova and
Sophie Ball also helped push the Tigers in the sweep, picking up six kills each.
The Lady Tigers will open up the home portion of their schedule on Tuesday, August 27
that 7 p.m. ET against Martin Methodist.