ELON, N.C. – The best teams in any sport can perform with their backs against the wall. For the Elon University volleyball team, this adage certainly proved true on Sunday afternoon.
After taking a commanding two-set lead over Campbell, the Camels bounced back with a strong start to the third set. After a back-and-forth beginning, Campbell racked off five straight points to take a 17-13 lead, forcing Elon to take a timeout and regroup.
Following the timeout, Elon continued to trail by as much as 19-15 before senior outside hitter Sydney Love substituted back into the match. With Love on the court, Elon racked up six consecutive points to take a 21-19 lead, proving insurmountable for Campbell.
"For me, it was momentum," Love said. "Once everybody around me says, 'Let's go,' I am going to go crazy out there because everyone behind me is cheering me on. Everyone was engaged with every single play on the court."
With that momentum and engagement, Elon scored 10 of the final 12 points and Love recorded five kills during that stretch. This included the final two kills which officially knocked off the Camels in a 3-0 Phoenix sweep.
"I was seeing the court a little bit better," Love said. "I was seeing the line and high hands better towards the end but it helps when people behind you are cheering you on and calling out shots."
The final set was not the only set of the match in which an Elon player helped rally the team from a deficit. In the first set, Campbell jumped to an early 9-6 lead thanks in part to four consecutive scores. During this early deficit, junior middle blocker Lindsey Harris checked into the match for the first time.
Following the 9-6 deficit, Harris received a set from freshman Kayla Palmer and hit the ball onto the Campbell side for her first kill of the afternoon. Immediately following, Harris received another set from Palmer and recorded her second consecutive kill thanks to a blocking error from the Camels.
"Our goal for this game was to avoid high hands to avoid the giant block we had in front of us," Harris said. "Personally, I have been working all week with avoiding high hands and I did a good job with that."
Thanks to the consecutive kills from Harris, Elon continued to dominate Campbell in the first set. Harris finished with two more kills in the set before the Phoenix finished with a 25-17 victory. Harris tied a season-high with six kills and also led the Phoenix with a .750 kill percentage.
"I recently changed positions," Harris said. "I have been working super hard to adapt to a new everything. I am just really glad to see all my hard work pay off and show off on the court in games."
The three-set victory was Elon's fifth shutout win during conference play and comes after a heartbreaking five-set defeat to the Camels on Saturday. With the victory, the Phoenix also improved to 5-3 in conference play which ties the team for fourth place in the CAA.
"We knew it was going to be hard to win three straight [sets]," Love said. "They are a great team, they put it on us every once in a while. I think we knew that we were going to win in three the way everyone was engaged on every single ball. When we got ahead, we were not letting them come back."
'Rising Phoenix' is a student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Chase Strawser at cstrawser@elon.edu.
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