PULASKI, Tenn. – The Lady Tigers of Campbellsville University pounced on the Firehawks Wednesday night to open up conference play with a 3-0 sweep.
The Lady Tigers (3-2, 0-0 MSC) were looking to get back into the win column to start conference play as they matched up against the Firehawks of The University of Tennessee Southern (3-9, 0-0 MSC).
In the first set, Campbellsville looked a bit rattled by the hostile crowd. A nearly packed lower bowl made up of student-athletes from several sports cheered on the home team. The Lady Tigers were down early 0-2, but some miscues and some timely kills allowed them to go on a 7-0 run and not look back. Campbellsville built a six-point lead until late in the set when the Firehawks tried to gain some momentum. They did so successfully to pull within three points. However, the Lady Tigers dominated the end of the set and closed them out by a score of 25-20. Leading the way for the Campbellsville was
Molly Shannon with five kills.
In the second set, Campbellsville sent
Paige Merrick to the service line to start things off. She took the Lady Tigers on a four-point run and then led the entire set. Interestingly, Campbellsville offensively did not have much to show as the ended the set with a .091 hitting percentage. This is a drastic difference from the first set where they hit .250. The difference in the set was the stellar defense by CU's libero
Andrea Laboy and setter
Paige Merrick picking up dig after dig and making it look easy. The Firehawks could not get their offense in system as they were disrupted by strong serves and a stingy Lady Tigers defense. Set two went to CU by the score of 25-20 as
Molly Shannon secure the last two kills to capture a two sets to none lead.
The third set was much like the first two sets, only this time Campbellsville was not interested in letting things get close. An attacking error by the Lady Tigers would allow the Firehawks to get to within one point, 10-9. Determined not to let the set be a close one, Campbellsville put together a 8-1 run to blow things wide open and allow the Lady Tigers to quiet the crowd. Campbellsville would eventually take set three and the match by a score of 25-14.
"I am extremely proud of the way our girls executed the game plan tonight. Our serve-receive carried us through the sweep and allowed us to get creative at the net. Very happy with our first conference win. We are looking forward to the next match up on Saturday," said Coach Johnston.
Leading the way defensively for the Lady Tigers was
Andrea Laboy with 21 digs. Offensively, the Lady Tigers were led by
Molly Shannon with 17 kills and she double-doubled with ten digs of her own.
Paige Merrick had double figures with 32 assists and 19 digs. The Lady Tigers improved their record to 4-2, 1-0 MSC. They will be on the road again on Saturday, September 10
th as they take on Cumberland University at 4:00pm ET.
