BUIES CREEK – The Fighting Camels earned their first regular season conference championship in program history (37 seasons) with a straight-set win over USC Upstate Friday night in Gore Arena. Campbell (18-10, 14-2) will be the No. 1 seed in next weekend's Big South tournament, set to be held in High Point, N.C.
"We've worked 10 long years getting this program off the ground," head coach
Greg Goral said. "To finally have it all come to fruition and put a complete, quality season together means the world to me.
It was a pair of freshmen, Gwen Wolkow and Abbie Tuyo, that led the Camels in kills on senior night, with 11 and 9, respectively. Seniors
Lailah Green and
Melody Paige chipped in eight each, while classmate
Ananda Patterson added six.
Emily Mitter dished out 21 assists.
Elyse Gross earned time in all three sets and was a perfect 1.000 on serve receive along with three digs.
Campbell fought in a pair of close sets, winning the first 25-22 and the second 27-25, before asserting their dominance in the third set and clinching the crown with a 25-12 win.
Service errors again plagued Campbell, making it an uphill battle with 10 errors in the first two frames. After hitting in the .200s in the first two, Campbell hit the gas with the championship in reach, hitting .406 in the final set and committing just one service error. Four different players logged three or more kills in the third, led by Gwen Wolkow with five.
The Camels hit .277 for the match and held the Spartans to just .134.
Campbell hung its first championship banner with a Big South tournament title a year ago, setting the stage for Friday night's first regular season crown.
"I couldn't be more proud of this team, the program, and all the players that came before. Everybody put in everything they have to make this program what it is today," Goral said.
The Camels are set to face Charleston Southern in the Big South semifinal on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Millis Center. No. 2 High Point will face No. 3 Winthrop in the other semifinal. The championship match will be Sunday at 2 p.m.
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