RIO GRANDE, Ohio. — Campbellsville shined defensively with 16.5 blocks and 42 digs to win a five-set thriller over the Rio Grande Red Storm Saturday night.
In set one, Campbellsville broke a five-all tie by scoring four of the following five points. Rio Grande battled their way back to make it nine's. A swing from
Jakob Zum Kolk gave the Tigers the advantage.
Diego Betancourt found a variety of hitters that kept putting points on the board for Campbellsville. The Tigers kept opening the gap, pushing their edge to 16-12, which forced a Red Storm timeout. The Tigers kept building positively out of the break with a
Jariel Diaz kill. The Red Storm cashed in on several errors, which made them call their second timeout looking to sustain the change in the match's momentum.
Denzel Madrigal tallied a kill to the board, keeping Campbellsville ahead 21-19. Rio Grande rattled off a two-point run to close the gap to 21-all. The two teams went back and forth with each other and pushed the score to 24's. Campbellsville was outpowered by Rio Grande and lost the first set 26-24. Betancourt tallied 14 assists in the first frame.
The Tigers took advantage of a handful of Red Storm errors to put them ahead 10-7 to begin the second set. A Red Storm error and an ace from
Fernand Morales extended the Tigers' lead to 14-9. Tigers kept building their lead over the Red Storm with swings from Zum Kolk and
Alvaro Grande. Betancourt and Grande showcased their connection as Grande maintained a 1.000 hitting percentage with four kills. The Tigers ran away with the lead as a Zum Kolk kill sliced the gap even further to 21-14. Zum Kolk puts an end to the second set with a service ace. The second set score was 25-15. Morales had five digs during the second set.
Rio Grande grabbed an early 5-3 lead over Campbellsville to start set three. Diaz put up three straight kills to pull the Tigers back into the match. The Tigers were looking to minimize their errors and take advantage of Red Storm's errors in this set because that propelled their success in set two. Rio Grande stormed out a six-point scoring run to give them an advantage over the Tigers of 16-12. Grande proved clutch for the Tigers and ended the Red Storm's run with a kill. Rio Grande continued to push towards the finish line capitalizing on Campbellsville's errors and forcing a Tiger timeout. The Tigers were plagued by errors and lost the third set 25-16.
The fourth frame opened with Tigers on fire with an 8-4 lead over the Red Storm. Betancourt distributed the ball to key players to keep adding to the Tiger's score. Madrigal was one of Betancourt's connections, and he put one away for the Tigers. Betancourt had 39 assists at that point in the match.
Leonel Fernandez came alive for the Tigers and got back-to-back kills, making it a one-point set. Madrigal tallied an ace for the Tigers and put them up 19-17. Rio Grande was chipping away at the Tiger's lead trying to make it an even match again. Zum Kolk put one away and made the score 22-20. As Zum Kolk put another ace on the board, Madrigal and Banks had a dominant block to push Campbellsville over the top to win the fourth set 25-20.
Set five opened with a 3-1 run by the Tigers. The Red Storm quickly sliced the margin by exploiting Tiger's errors. Campbellsville and Rio Grande were tied up 7-7. The Tigers kept running toward the finish line using their defense effectively and kept Rio Grande from scoring. Zum Kolk jumped on the momentum train and put one down for the Tigers. Banks added one to the stat line as well and made the score 14-10. A Tiger block by Fernandez and Banks sealed the deal and gave the Tigers the win 15-10.
Betancourt finished with 53 assists, two digs, and four blocks. The team had an impressive hitting percentage of 0.326 compared to Rio Grande's 0.275. The Tigers also had 16.5 blocks; Banks had eight of these 16. Grande ended the night with a fantastic hitting percentage of 0.727 and eight kills with no errors.
The Tigers will retake the court on Thursday, March 2nd in Gosser Gymnasium against Thomas More University at 7 p.m. ET.
