Carson-Newman Volleyball Downs Tusculum, 3-1, In South Atlantic Conference Action Tuesday Night
Jefferson City, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman College Volleyball Team (8-5, 2-1 SAC) pushed its South Atlantic Conference win streak to two matches Tuesday evening as it defeated Tusculum College (7-7, 1-3 SAC) by a 3-1 (20-25, 25-11, 25-17, 25-22) score at home. The Lady Eagles are currently 6-1 in the friendly confines of Holt Fieldhouse.
Jefferson City, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman College Volleyball
Team (8-5, 2-1 SAC) pushed its South Atlantic Conference win streak
to two matches Tuesday evening as it defeated Tusculum College
(7-7, 1-3 SAC) by a 3-1 (20-25, 25-11, 25-17, 25-22) score at home.
The Lady Eagles are currently 6-1 in the friendly confines of Holt
Fieldhouse.
"Tusculum and Carson-Newman always get up for each other. I think
when we travel there we are going to expect them to get after us
just like tonight," said Head Coach Shannon Mincey after the match.
"We are thrilled with the win. Tusculum is a solid team. They have
a lot of hard hitters and they move the ball well. Their setter was
dynamic at transition offense."
Tusculum jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the first set and would hold
on through a Carson-Newman rally that brought the score to within
four points at 22-18 before going on to win the set. Bailee Price
(Fort Wayne, Ind.) recorded five kills while Peyton Colclough
(Manassas, Va.) dished-out 12 of her 38 assists during the set as
well.
"I think we were tight and nervous with it being our first home
night game with a bigger crowd," added Mincey. "We tightened up and
played very tentative and thought too much to begin with. We
regrouped in the second set and just played and stopped
thinking."
The Lady Eagles seized the momentum of the match in the second
frame as the team outhit the Pioneers by a .412 to .071 margin to
equalize the match score at one apiece. C-N was effective on the
rally and defensively, scoring 11 of the last 15 points of the set.
Setter Stephanie Cutter (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) racked-up 15 assists
in the stanza as the senior reached double figures in each of
contests' four sets.
In the third set, freshman middle Jasmine Clarke (Pelham, Ala.)
hit a perfect 6-for-6 as Carson-Newman leapt out to an 11-3 lead
before six straight points by Tusculum drew the score to 11-9. The
Lady Eagles scored two points for every one the Pioneers put on the
board for the rest of the frame to take a 2-1 set lead in the
match.
Tusculum and Carson-Newman battled tight in the fourth and final
set of the match as neither team led by more than three points in a
period that featured four ties. The Pioneers actually sported a
higher hitting percentage than the Lady Eagles, but were unable to
withstand the number of attacks that C-N played into their half of
the court. Senior outside hitter Jessica Schachleiter (Cincinnati,
Ohio) paced Carson-Newman with six kills in the set while senior
middle blocker Jessica Brady (Fruitland Park, Fla.) and Clarke
added four kills each.
"Towards the end of the match we started serving tougher at them
and taking them out of the offense and started picking them apart,
so I think that certainly helped," said Mincey.
Schachleiter and Clarke each finished the match with 15 kills,
while senior middle Katie Troyer (Plain City, Ohio) added 14 kills
of her own and led all players with four blocks. Schachleiter added
15 digs to complete her double-doubles for the night.
Cutter recorded an impressive 55 assists on 63 Carson-Newman kills
to come up just one assist short of her career record of 56 and
added 15 digs for the double-double. Freshman libero Angelle Hayes
(Brentwood, Tenn.) picked up a match-high 25 digs and added two
well-timed service aces also for C-N.
Price and Carly Swisher (Fort Collins, Colo.) led Tusculum
offensively with 12 and 11 kills, respectively, while Swisher added
11 digs to complete the double-double.
"(Our youth) is a part of our slow starts in these last couple of
conference matches, but our freshmen really stepped up tonight as
the match progressed," concluded Mincey. "Angelle and Jasmine, in
particular, just came alive and played well but I would say
everyone stepped up and played well tonight."
"Tonight's win gives us confidence. We have a full week off, so
certainly it would have been hard to mull over a loss for a whole
week. It's nice to know that we got a win, but we are certainly not
relaxing on just beating Tusculum. We've got a lot of great teams
in our conference."
Carson-Newman will return to the court next Tuesday night when the
Lady Eagles take on the Lions of Mars Hill College in the final
match of this SAC homestand. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m.
