BUIES CREEK, N.C. – On Sept. 8 in the final match of the NC State Courtyard Midtown Invitational, junior setter Heather Wilson (Concord, N.C.) set a new Campbell volleyball school record for rally scoring with a triple-double in a loss to Western Carolina. The five-set match saw Wilson total 13 kills, 24 assists and 13 digs.

"Heather is so smart and knows the game so well," said head coach Leigh Mullins. "She has great vision on the court and understands where the ball needs to be placed. When she is setting and hitting, I feel that her mind is even more in the match."

The Concord, N.C., native achieved the performance of her career through two sets. She posted eight kills, 11 assists and 10 digs through the first two sets. Nine of those digs were registered in the second frame. Wilson eclipsed the feat with a kill in the third set to knot the frame at 12-12 as she reached double figures in kills, assists and digs.

"During the match, I did not even think about how well I was doing," said Wilson. "I just thought about getting the hitters the ball and enabling them to put the ball down."

She finished the contest with three more kills, setting personal-bests in kills with 13 and attempts with 31 during the process. Wilson tallied a season-high 13 digs for the third time on the campaign. The offense posted 53 assists with Wilson registering 24 and freshman Pia Holzgreve (Nottyln, Germany) adding 23.

Wilson was not aware of the feat following the game. It was a little later when she realized the significance of her play on that Saturday night.

"Actually, I was with my parents and my mom kept looking it up on her phone," said Wilson. "She was waiting for the scores to post, so we could see if I had gotten one. It was an amazing moment for me when I found out I accomplished the feat."

Even though this was the first collegiate triple-double for Wilson, she had accomplished it on numerous occasions during high school career at Concord. Their offense enabled her to set in the back row and hit on the outside at the net. She totaled 328 kills, 298 assists and 145 aces in her senior year, leading the Spiders to a 23-8-1 record.

She came one kill away from a triple-double earlier in the season against Georgetown on Aug. 31 in Willaimsburg, Va., as she registered nine kills, 34 assists and 10 digs. The Hoyas did not have a response for Wilson's dump into the vacant areas of the defense.

After extensive research earlier in the week, it was confirmed that this was the third triple-double in Campbell school history. Cindy Oppenhiemer accomplished the feat in 1997 and again in 1998 during the sideout era, when sets were to 15 points and points were only awarded to the serving team.

Oppenhiemer notched the last one by a Camel on Nov. 11, 1998, registering 13 kills, 11 digs and 11 blocks as the Camels won a five-set match against Georgia State in the quarterfinals of the Trans-American Athletic Conference Tournament at Jacksonville, Fla.

Now with rally scoring in place, matches are quicker as a point is awarded to the team that wins each rally and the best-of-five sets are played to 25.

The Inside Perspective

Campbell has not traditionally, at least this season, run the 6-2 offense that it used against the Catamounts, which requires two setters. Wilson came to coach Mullins and associate head coach Nathan Leggett between the second and third sets at NC State and recommended a change.

"I think we need to throw in a 6-2 offense," said Wilson. "Granted we have yet to practice it this year. If anything, it is going to make the players think about the game more and change things up a little bit, instead of just going through the motions."

In running the 6-2 offense, there is not much of a change for the hitters, except there are three attackers in the front row. The setters, Wilson and Holzgreve, are the players making the adjustment. Holzgreve from Nottyln, Germany, was accustomed to running a high-ball offense, but she has had to adjust to the quick attacks that Campbell runs.

"We were definitely struggling offensively," said coach Mullins. "All I told Pia [Holzgreve] was that she needed to set a basic high ball to our outsides. She took it and just flew with it."

At the time, the team could not do much worse than the 25-11 loss in the first set to the Wolfpack, so the coaches decided to give it a try. The results were dynamic as the Camels registered more kills than NC State, 14-12, and Wilson tallied four kills on five attempts in a 25-19 defeat.

Wilson stands at six-foot and is not the tallest player or records the largest vertical leap on the team, but she has the knowledge to be an effective hitter.

"Definitely, I think that being a setter helps me hit," said Wilson. "Setting is a very mental part of the game. It helps me as a hitter because I don't go up and try to just crush the ball, but I go up and place the ball where it is going to get the team a kill. I know my limitations and if I try to swing too hard, then it is going to land out of bounds or into the block."

Coach Mullins noticed that the team realized that Wilson was able to put down kills on sets that were not perfect. She felt that at times the outside hitters can become a little picky when it comes to the set. The hitters saw that Wilson, a leader on the court, is bettering the ball and doing so without complaint on the location of sets, so it served almost as a wakeup call for the team.

Wilson was especially excited to have the opportunity to hit and increase her aggressiveness on the attack.

"When she gets to hit, she takes the game more personally," said coach Mullins. "She becomes more involved in the game. When she is a hitter, she plays better defense and becomes a much more intense player that goes after every ball."

Looking forward, Coach Mullins hopes that this was an opportunity for Wilson to realize that she can have success in all aspects of the sport – setting, hitting, blocking and digging. For Campbell's squad, she is the only player that is doing it all.

"She has always been a confident player," said coach Mullins. "This is going to help her have more confidence in herself, which will bleed out onto the team and give them more confidence. She is a great captain to have and a great mentor to have for our underclassmen."

Wilson and the Camels head to Winston-Salem, N.C., on Friday to face Appalachian St. at the Black and Gold Challenge. Campbell completes the two day event on Saturday agaisnt host Wake Forest at 12:30 p.m. and Toledo at 4:30 p.m.