October 30, 2012

Carson-Newman volleyball digs pink with Tuesday match against rival Tusculum

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (9-12, 3-9 SAC) celebrates Breast Cancer Awareness Month with its Dig Pink match Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse versus Tusculum (16-10, 10-4 SAC). The Eagles will wear pink uniforms and proceeds from the night will go toward finding a cure for cancer.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (9-12, 3-9 SAC) celebrates Breast Cancer Awareness Month with its Dig Pink match Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse versus Tusculum (16-10, 10-4 SAC).

The Eagles will wear pink uniforms and proceeds from the night will go toward finding a cure for cancer.

"We just want to get people in the stands to promote the reason for our play," Carson-Newman head volleyball coach Shannon Mincey said. "The reason we're in pink jerseys is to support all the men and women who have suffered breast cancer or who know someone has suffered or is suffering from it. With us all being women out there, chances are we know someone who's been affected by it."

The Dig Pink match will feature two of the top liberos in the conference with Carson-Newman's Angelle Hayes (Brentwood, Tenn.) and Tusculum's Caitlyn Dean.

Hayes is averaging 7.72 digs/set over the Eagles last five matches and 6.60 per set in South Atlantic Conference play. The senior is third on the all-time digs charts at Carson-Newman with 1,835. Daphne Eptiny (1994-97) sits in second place with 2030.

"Verbally, Angelle is stepping up and telling our hitters to let her handle the plays so that they can focus on their hits," Mincey said. "They're trusting her more to do so and she's taking more ownership. She has control of the court, and it makes sense because she's played for so long. "

Dean was the nation's leader in digs per set last week with 7.51. The junior boosted her average to 7.77 after setting a Tusculum school record with 47 digs against Anderson for a four-set match. Dean also became the school's all-time leader in digs for the match; she has accounted for 2,166 digs in her three seasons at Tusculum, breaking the previous mark of 2,134 digs posted by Alexis Rowles from 2004-07.

"It'll be fun to watch (Hayes and Dean) fight it out and see which one of them comes away with more digs," Mincey said. "This is just a fun rivalry."

Blair Fowler is C-N's all-time leader in digs with 2,550, set from 2002-05.

"Tomorrow night's going to be a defensive night. If we stay in system I think we'll be able to get a little momentum. They've got strong hitters and their setter does not telegraph her sets, so Angelle and the rest of our back line will have to be ready to dig."

The Eagles dropped a five-set match (25-19, 16-25, 29-27, 21-25, 11-15) to Tusculum on Sept. 18.

A live video stream and stats will be available for the match on cneagles.com.