Camels Drop Final Two Matches of Campbell Classic, Brittany Rusin Named All-Tournament

BUIES CREEK, N.C.-Campbell junior Brittany Rusin was named to the Campbell Classic all-tournament team, however Texas A&M Corpus Christi rallied for a 3-2 (22-30, 26-30, 30-23, 32-30, 16-14) over the Fighting Camels and North Carolina A&T defeated Campbell 3-0 (30-27, 30-26, 30-27) in the finale.
"Brittany had a great weekend unfortunately we couldn't put together a great team effort today," Campbell head coach Malinda Ashcraft said. "We blocked well at the net, but left too many holes everywhere else. We have some things that we need to work on before the Atlantic Sun schedule gets here."
Rusin finished the weekend with 31 kills and 14 blocks, including 13 kills and four blocks against the Aggies (4-5). Alissa Brackeen turned in the only other double-figure kill performance for the Camels (4-6) with 10. Crystal Sieber continued her strong defensive work with 10 digs.
Arlene Mitchell led the Aggies with 16 kills and eight digs in the victory over the Camels, while her twin sister, Darlene, added nine kills. North Carolina A&T had 15 service aces for the match, six from Brenden Chatman and five from Krystal Cooper. Lauren Walker led all players with 15 digs.
Campbell jumped out to a quick 2-0 advantage over the Islanders with good hitting and defense. The Camels hit .267 and .222 in the first two games of the match and held to just Texas A&M Corpus Christi to .000 and .194.
The Islanders rallied to win the final three games behind the strong hitting from Anna Machado and Kati Broom. Machado led Texas A&M Corpus Christi (3-1) with 22 kills and Broom added 16. The pair did struggle with their accuracy committing 11 and 15 errors, respectively.
Tabitha Turner dominated the offensive attack for the Fighting Camels with 22 kills to just three errors. Rachel Templin proved the rest of the Camels offense with 15 kills. Campbell dominated the net on defense tying a school record with 24 blocks assists. Templin finished the match with nine block assists, one off the school record. Rusin joined Templin on most of the Camels blocks and finished with eight block assists for the match.
Four Islanders finished with double-digit digs led by Carol Munoz's 25 and Broom's 22. Paula Araujo ran the Islanders' offense dishing out 38 assists, while Sarah Dillon had 39 for Campbell.
Corpus Christi complete their perfect run through the Campbell Classic with a 3-2 (28-30, 30-20, 30-26, 31-33, 15-7) victory over Radford (2-5). Machado once again led the Islanders with 19 kills. Divona Cox and Elizabeth Aldredge each had 17 kills to lead Radford.
North Carolina A&T opened play on Saturday with a 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 30-28) over Radford. Mitchell paced the Aggies with 20 kills, while Aldredge and Cox each had nine for the Highlanders

Campbell Classic All Tournament Team:

MVP: Anna Machado-Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Kati Broom-Texas A&M Corpus Christi
Arlene Mitchell-North Carolina A&T
Brendan Chatman-North Carolina A&T
Brittany Rusin--Campbell
Elizabeth Aldredge-Radford