UNCW Volleyball Wins 7th Straight Match

By Ethan Marsh, Reporter
Wilmington, NC - All of UNCW athletics this Fall have been playing very well in their non-conference schedules and the Volleyball team is right along with them, with this convincing 3-0 match win over Campbell on Tuesday night.

The last time UNCW lost was August 28th in the hands of Davidson at a score of 3-0 at home. Since then, the Seahawks have won two tournaments in a row and won six games in a row total. This matchup with fellow North Carolinian school, the Campbell Camels from Buies Creek, was just another testimony to their success. This was the 47th time UNCW had played Campbell and held a 31-15 overall record against them since the series started in 1986.
 
Fellow TealTV Reporter Sydney Brock has had a successful season so far as she was named the MVP honors along with Alyssa Desjardins and Nicole Lott on the all-tournament team. She also was recognized as the Colonial Athletic Association Co-Player-of-the-Week for the very first time as a result of her outstanding play. The game exemplified why she has been honored with these recognitions as she was versatile across the court helping all she could to make it a W versus Campbell.
 
As the game was played on a Tuesday evening in the middle of a regular school week, the Screaming Seahawks were well and present with an abundance of students in the bleachers cheering on their fellow Volleygirls team. Games played on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights generally have more of a following than the ones on Sunday afternoons most likely because of the students being more prevalent on campus on weekdays. On Sundays they may be up to other activities and it makes it good to have games played on these weekdays as there is more of a student turnout.
 
All three of the matches of this series with Campbell resulted in an UNCW win. Not all three of them went down the same pattern, however. The first two matches were in a similar pattern with one another as UNCW built an early lead at 6-1 in the first and 8-1 in the second; then Campbell slowly but surely started creeping back into it. This was shown when Campbell went on a 9-4 run in the first to tie it at 10 and then tie it gain at 13 and making it a game, but ultimately UNCW outlasting this comeback. The largest lead was a 13-4 UNCW lead in the second match. Both of these matches were a great deal of excitement for the UNCW crowd before UNCW went in for a 10-minute halftime period.
 
The third match did not go like the first two. Campbell started off by dominating UNCW with a 5-0 lead to start it off. However, Campbell did in the first match, UNCW came back with a 9-4 run to tie it at nine then tie it again at 10-10 and 11-11. A hit over the net by Senior Kristen Powell to make it 13-11, then another hit by Junior Sydney Brock to make it 15-11 really set the course to come out of the tying ground and run away with the win.
 
UNCW turned around Campbell’s early triumph and made it their triumph later in the match to win it. The Camels did stay within striking distance at 20-17 but needless to say, UNCW didn’t let them come any closer. With the UNCW crowd holding a #1 up, the last one over the net convincingly by six at 25-19 like the first one to win the series 3-0 after going on a 25-14 run over Campbell after the Camels led 5-0 at the beginning.
 
UNCW’s effective defense and effectiveness right at the net led to this win to improve their overall record to 9-1 on the season, their seventh straight win to have a very successful start to the season. The Seahawks will start their conference play in their next home series versus Northeastern on Friday, September 23rd at 7pm. UNCW will be playing Duke and N.C. State, and other North Carolina schools on September 17th and 18th, respectively away in Raleigh and Durham before the start of conference play on September 23rd.