CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville hosted pod play Friday night, and the Tigers faced Cumberland University and Reinhardt University. The Tigers opened up home conference play in game one with a five-set loss to the Phoenix. For game two, Campbellsville was swept against the Eagles.
Game One: Campbellsville 2, Cumberland 3
The Phoenix took a steady lead as their defense caused problems for Campbellsville's offense. A kill from
Jakob Zum Kolk propelled the Tigers in the right direction after the Phoenix's run. The Tigers were behind by three points, 13-10. A Tigers rally began with Zum Kolk's kill as they went on a five-point run to put them back in the game. The Phoenix started to crumble as the Tigers kept their comeback alive. Cumberland called a timeout when they were down 23-20, and the Tigers, as a team, had nine digs and four blocking assists. Their defense was a central focal point in their battle back. Campbellsville won the set 25-22.
The Tigers started the second set similar to the first, as it was a battle on both sides of the court. Phoenix went on a three-point run, pushing them ahead of the Tigers 8-4. Campbellsville started their fight back by taking advantage of Cumberland's errors. Zum Kolk's lethal arm put some kills on the board too. The set continued to be a back-and-forth struggle between the two teams. The Tigers tied it up at 16 with a big block from Zum Kolk. Cumberland went on a run after Campbellsville started to slip up on some errors. The Tigers called a timeout when they were down 21-18, looking for a change in their momentum. This timeout caused Cumberland to miss their serve and paused their point streak. Unfortunately, it was only momentary as the Phoenix got right back on track where they left off, and Cumberland took it 25-21.
The third set opened with a block party for the Tigers. The first four of the Tiger's points were blocks from the dominant front row of
Jariel Diaz,
JoVeaun Banks,
Leonel Fernandez, and
Alvaro Grande. The stops aided in a run by the Tigers that the Phoenix could not answer, making the score 9-2. Cumberland started to rally back; however, Campbellsville maintained their comfortable lead of 16-10. At that point, the Tigers forced Cumberland to call a timeout. Campbellsville continued to showcase their composure as they rallied to win the set 25-18.
The Tigers were looking to open the fourth set by increasing their hitting percentage and reducing their errors, which plagued them in the previous frames. Campbellsville grabbed the lead early as they dialed in on their offense and produced kills. The Phoenix began to respond, but the Tigers stopped their run and went on a three-point run with kills from Banks and
Fernand Morales. Cumberland wouldn't go down though, and Campbellsville called a timeout at 19-18. Zum Kolk came out of the break in the action with a right-side kill to elevate the Tigers to 20-19. Marcos Gonzalez returned to the service line and put an ace on the board for the Tigers. But the Phoenix capitalized on Tiger errors and won the fourth set 25-23.
The final set started with Cumberland errors, which put the Tigers up 2-0. The Tigers were still plagued with errors making the score 5's. Both teams struggled to pull ahead as they went point for point. The Phoenix got ahead 12-10, the Tigers could not find their rhythm, and Cumberland won 15-11.
The Tigers finished the five-set match with a team-hitting percentage of 0.166, led by Zum Kolk, who hit 0.333 with 13 kills.
Diego Betancourt led the offense with 45 assists, and
Andres Laboy had 19 digs.
Game Two: Campbellsville 0, Reinhardt 3
Beginning the first set, Campbellsville notched the first two points with kills from Banks and Gonzalez. The Tigers then went on an 8-3 scoring run, but the teams started trading points after. Reinhardt answered with a 13-2 scoring run and took a four-point lead. Campbellsville couldn't combat the big spree by the Eagles and lost the first set 25-22.
At the start of the second, Gonzales got the first kill for the Tigers. Then, both teams were operating their offense well, earning points and keeping the score close. As it sat at 11-10, Reinhardt rattled off several points giving them a 21-16 lead over Campbellsville. The Tigers scored just three more points before the frame ended in the Eagles' favor: 25-19.
The third, and what would prove to be final, the set started with an attack error from Gonzalez, giving the Eagles their first point. A mix of Reinhardt kills and Campbellsville errors gave the Eagles the burst they needed to go ahead 10-5. Midway through the set, the Tigers still found themselves within five points of the Eagles. Shortly after, the Eagles started to pull away. Once again, a mix of Reinhardt kills and aces, as well as Tiger errors, pulled together a match loss for the Tigers.
Although Campbellsville faltered, they totaled 87 attacks compared to Reinhardt's 79 attacks. The key though was that Reinhardt had 36 kills against Campbellsville's 30. Campbellsville also tallied many errors with 23 from attacks and 11 from the service line compared to Reinhardt's 15 and nine, respectively. Gonzalez led the Tigers with 13 total kills. Zum Kolk followed him with seven kills and Banks with three.
The Tigers will be back in action Saturday, February 18th at 2 p.m. ET taking on the Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars.
