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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Campbell volleyball fell in four sets to the Ospreys of North Florida on the first day of the Courtyard Mayo Classic. Rachel Harty lead the Camels offense with 11 kills and a block while Rebecca Ramirez dished out 19 assists and three aces. Mary Crema dug the ball up 16 times and Katelyn Layden chipped in an additional 11.
"I thought we came out really strong and focused," said head coach Greg Goral. "We dominated game one. North Florida fought really hard and played extremely well in sets two and three. I like how we played, but we just put ourselves into too many situations where we had to fight back. We still have some growing pains with such a young team but I like what I see and am looking forward to the games ahead."
The Camels traded points back and forth with the Osprey through most of the first match. At the first timeout the Orange and Black held a 16-11 lead, including seven kills. As the set continued the Camels earned five more kills to total 12 and took the first set with a score of 25-21. Harty tallied five of her 11 kills in the first set.
In the second set the Camels got off to a slow start allowing points on a couple of errors and six kills. The Orange and Black allowed the Osprey to score eight points before getting its point on the board on a service ace from Layden. By the second timeout of the set the Camels were trailing 16-4 and could not recover the ground. UNF won set two 25-12 collecting 17 kills on the Camels.
Campbell used the intermission time to collect their thoughts and come up with a game plan going into the second half of the match. They came into the third set with more energy and swapped points with UNF throughout the match. The Osprey had a slight lead of 19-16 when they called their first timeout but managed to hang on through the Camels rally late in the set. UNF finished off set three with a score of 25-22 barely holding the eager Camels back. Harty recorded four more kills in the third set and Crema provided six digs to keep the Orange and Black within three points. McKenzie Fell added three kills in the set and ended the night with nine of her own.
Set four again had a slow start as the Camels allowed the Osprey to score five kills to bring the score 5-2. The two teams would go back and forth trading kills and errors until the Camels tied the game at tem points. By the first timeout the score was 16-15 UNF and the Camels were getting in a rhythm. Campbell fought to stay in the game but let the Osprey slip away on errors to win the set 25-21. Layden, Ramirez, Jenny Tait and Jessica Stocking all chipped in three kills apiece for the team's total 17.
"Rachel did really well for us on the right side," said Goral. "She came out exceptionally well in game one and started to slow down as the match progressed. She still played well throughout the game, as did Stocking in the middle."
"I think the biggest thing we need to focus on is our consistency and playing good volleyball more often. The talent is there we just have to execute better throughout our matches."
The Fighting Camels are back in action for day two of the Courtyard Mayo Classic on Saturday, Sept. 12. They will face the Owls of Florida Atlantic at 9 a.m. followed by contest against Bethune-Cookman set for a 1 p.m. start.
