BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Campbell picked up its seventh win in a row with a 3-1 victory over USC Upstate Saturday afternoon in Gore Arena. Seven wins in a row marks the team's longest win streak since 1998 and the longest of head coach Greg Goral's tenure.
 
The Camels dropped the first set but battled back to take each of the next three for a four-set win. After allowing the Spartans to hit .345 in the opening frame, the Camel defense tightened up and Upstate would not hit above .104 in another set and finished the match at .082. The combination of nine blocks along the front line and Claranne Fechter's 24 digs subdued the Spartan attack for much of the match.
 
Upstate's fast start was propelled by Rachael Stroot's four kills in the first as the Spartans committed only one error to Campbell's eight. Campbell stuck close, but Upstate scored nine of the final 11 points in the set to pull away for a 25-17 set win.
 
"They've got weapons a lot of different places," head coach Greg Goral said. "We had to play really good volleyball. They came out and punched us early with 11 kills and only one error in the first set and took it to us. We had to regroup and reset our focus to take it to them. I'm really proud of our team that we were able to run off three sets in a row of high caliber volleyball. We did what we needed to offensively down the stretch."
 
It was all Camels the rest of the way. Campbell's largest set win of the weekend came in the second set at 25-12. Five different Camels had multiple kills in the set and the balanced attack set the table for the rest of the match as three Camels finished with 10+ kills.
 
The defense was at its best in the third set, holding the Upstate attack to hitting -.111 to help Campbell to a 25-14 win. Sarah Colla continued her big weekend with five kills in the frame while hitting .500. She'd go on to finish with 13 on .310 hitting.
 
Upstate kept it closer in the fourth set, but couldn't quite keep pace as the Camels finished the match with a 25-19 win. Meldoy Paige finished things off with six kills in the final frame, pat of her match-high 16 on the night, one shy of her career-high.
 
Madee Miner posted a season-high in assists for the second straight night, this time with a match-high 35. She also tallied 13 digs for a double-double.
 
"To have seven wins in a row is a mindset thing," Goral said. "We want to be conference champs and they set their minds to it and we have to continue to go get it done."
 
The Camels put that win streak on the line again Friday night when they visit the reigning conference champs and preseason favorite High Point. That match will begin at 6 p.m.