CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Fresh off of their 12
th victory of the season and their shiny new No. 1 ranking in the NAIA Coaches' Poll, the Campbellsville University men's volleyball team will head to North Carolina, then South Carolina, for three matches in three days starting this Thursday.
On Thursday, the Tigers will be in Belmont, N.C. for a match against Belmont Abbey College before heading to Gaffney, and Greenville, S.C. for matches against Limestone College and North Greenville University on Friday and Saturday respectively.
Campbellsville is coming off of their ninth overall and fourth-straight sweep win after their 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 win against Cumberland University. The Tigers were led by
Rafael Cruz's 16 kills as the all-time leader in Campbellsville program history is now over the 100-kill mark for the fourth-straight season.
The Tigers had over double the team kills that the Phoenix had as the disparity was 46-21 in favor of Campbellsville.
Joudiel Poveymirow (10) and
Tyler Vermilion (7) each had more kills than the best attacker for Cumberland as the Tigers' depth showed in full in their MSC opening match.
All three foes compete in NCAA Division II competition in Conference Carolinas with Belmont Abbey holding a 3-6 record heading into Thursday, Limestone at 5-1 so far this season, and North Greenville sitting at 4-3 through seven matches.
The Crusaders of Belmont Abbey own wins against Indiana Tech, Tesculum, and Lees-McRae in their nine matches so far. Liam Maxwell leads BAC in kills by far with 115 on the season, over double of the next highest total of 55 on the team by Andrew Kohut.
The Saints of Limestone College started their season on a four-match winning streak before falling to Emmanuel on Jan. 31 then bouncing back with a win against North Greenville on Tuesday. LC has three players over 40 kills in six matches led by the 68 total kills from Vicente Mardones who also sports a .258 hitting percentage.
The Crusaders of North Greenville dropped that match to Limestone while also suffering losses to Ohio State and Queens University of Charlotte with wins against Urbana, Tesculum, Emmanuel, and Erskine. Jackson Gilbert leads a group of four above 40 kills with Gilbert at 71 kills in five matches played with a .298 hitting percentage.
Campbellsville will return home after this trip to host Thomas More University on Feb. 11 at Gosser Gymnasium before heading right back to North Carolina for MSC matches against St. Andrews and Reinhardt.
