MANHATTAN, KS – The Fighting Camels opened the 2026 campaign with a five-set victory over Texas A&M Corpus Christi in Mahattan, Kan. at the K-State Open. After taking the first two sets, Campbell faltered allowing the match to be pushed to five, but answered with a 15-12 final set win.
After going 7-0 in fifth sets a season ago, the Camels picked up where they left off, and have now 10 straight five-set matches going back to 2024.
Emma McCartney led the offense with 22 kills in her Campbell debut, adding nine digs and four blocks to her line.
It was an ideal start to the season for the Camels as
Hannah Pattie served an ace to open the scoring, the first of five in the first frame for the Orange and Black. The defense was stout early and held the Islanders to -.160 hitting, forcing nine errors and coming up with five blocks as the Camels cruised to a 25-10 first set win.
The second set was more of a test, but Campbell was able to grind out a 25-23 win. The back-and-forth set was never separated by more than three points either way, and ultimately tied at 23 apiece before a kill from McCartney and an Islanders error lifted Campbell to the set win and 2-0 advantage.
A marathon third set ended with TAMU-CC pulling one back, taking it 30-28. The Islanders led by five early before a 6-0 Campbell run closed the gap. From there it was anybody's set, trading points until the Islanders picked up a kill and two blocks to close out the third frame.
Another slow start left the Camels trailing by eight early in the fourth and never worked back into it, falling 25-14. CU hit -0.111 in the fourth after hitting at least .230 in each of the previous three sets.
Campbell jumped out to an early lead in the fifth at 7-1, but allowed the Islanders back into it to tie the game at 9 all. Still knotted at 12, the Camels reeled off three straight points and finished things off with a block by Tupy and Heytvelt to seal the deal.
In addition to McCartney's big day, Tupy added 12 kills while Heytvelt tallied 10 along with seven blocks.
Hannah Pattie dished out 26 assists, and
Sadie Johnston compiled 16 digs in the libero spot.
TAMU-CC was led by 12 kills from both Kailtyn Aleshire and Ally Saleh.
The Camels are back at it tomorrow at 1:30 to face the hosts, Kansas State. First serve is set for 1:30pmET on ESPN+.
