Expedition established 2002 volleyball team’s legacy
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Fifteen years ago Carson-Newman produced the best season in the history of the volleyball program. 31 wins. A regular season title. A South Atlantic Conference tournament championship. The school’s first trip to the NCAA Playoffs.
Each Sunday during the 2017-18 school year, the Carson-Newman athletic communications department will shine a spotlight on a current or former Carson-Newman student athlete to tell a tale of life outside of his or her respective sport.
VIDEO: 2002 Team Reunion Memories
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Fifteen years ago Carson-Newman produced the best season in the history of the volleyball program. 31 wins. A regular season title. A South Atlantic Conference tournament championship. The school's first trip to the NCAA Playoffs.
Four sentences provide scope but the journey was a long and winding path that established a new standard for the program.
The first 12 years of the programs netted just one winning season, an 18-15 campaign in 1994. For the senior class, the first year in the Orange and Blue resulted in a 12-23 record in 1999 with a sixth-place SAC finish.
Wheels began to churn in 2000 when despite an 18-19 season and a 7-7 mark in the league, the Eagles earned the No. 5 seed in the conference championship. An improbable run saw Perry Robinson's team win four matches to capture the first conference title in program history. 2000 was the final season that the SAC's tournament titlist did not receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs and a big motivating factor in the success of the 2002 group.
In 2001, the Eagles went 24-13 finishing second in the league's regular season and fell in the conference semifinals to Catwaba. The team returned four starters and a pair of second-team All-SAC honorees in Jenna Rust and Kendra Rickersten.
"That senior group had grown up," Robinson recalled. "They were ready from day one that season. They had bought in and knew what they were good at. They wanted to put it all together. It was the second year that the league received an automatic qualifier and it was a big motivating factor. They wanted to be a part of the NCAA Tournament."
At the outset of the season, the unit played four matches in Huntsville, Ala. going 3-1 against top competition from the region including a five-set win over Alabama-Huntsville, a team that had finished ranked No. 25 in the country a year prior.
"At the beginning of the season we trained really hard," freshman outside hitter Jennifer Matthews remembered. "It was an irreversible bond. The training, the effort and the heart was there. Our eyes were set on one game at a time. Our team was awesome athletes but everyone had this extreme heart. It was different that a lot of teams. We had a lot of confidence but we were cautious. It was really special because I don't think anyone thought we would be there."
Robinson shuffled his lineup the next weekend trying to find rotations that could mesh. It was at that point he stumbled upon his libero, Blaire Young, who was recruited to play outside hitter. It was after that weekend, the first of September, that the fifth-year head coach realized he had a special group on his hands.
"I think about it now and we must have missed something early in the year," Robinson recollected of Young. "During practice we did not consider her but we put her on the court that second weekend and we found our lineup. We didn't change much after that weekend. From that point forward we knew what we wanted to do and we let the girls go out there and play. There were very few adjustments we needed to make as coaches the rest of the year."
Young notched 5.62 digs per set to lead the team. At the beginning of the season she stayed out of her teammates way and spent hours on the court trying to become a better player.
"Essentially I knew that this was something I wanted to be a part of," Young reminisced. "The older girls had started to build a legacy. It was a sisterhood. This was our family. We cried with them. We laughed with them. We sweat with them. We were throwing up with them. You don't get to pick your teammates. They are chosen for you. The great is that we were all friends and we cared a lot about each other."
Once Robinson found his lineup the team found its groove. During a stretch from Sept. 13 to Oct. 11, the Eagles won a program-record 15 consecutive matches dropping a total of seven sets. C-N won the final six outings of the regular season before steamrolling to the postseason championship upending regular season co-champion Catawba in straight sets on Nov. 24.
"It was really special mostly because we had not always had that success," senior middle blocker Erin Collins ruminated. "I do not even remember the details about the season other than we did well. It was really nice to go out that way. I think it did make it that much more special. It was great memories."
The Eagles secured their first berth in the NCAA Playoffs and a trip to Tampa to compete in a South Region that featured four top-20 teams. In the opening round, C-N fell to 19th-ranked North Florida but cemented a historic season with an accomplished mission.
Robinson's 2002 team is the only program in school history to win at least 30 matches going 31-7 overall and posting a 13-1 mark during the league campaign. The squad is the only club to earn a regular season title and one of two to capture the conference's tournament crown.
The school's only Player of the Year, Rust, was lauded thrice as an all-league selection. No player in school history has taken more swings than the 4,426 while her 1,572 kills are second to teammate Jennifer Holmes on the all-time ledger for C-N.
A three-time all-conference pick and the tournament MVP in 2002, Rickersten is sixth on the school's all-time digs list with 1,273 while sitting in the top 10 in program history in kills and kills per set. She was named the SAC Tournament MVP as she had 19 kills, 13 digs and a .388 hitting percentage. In tournament play, she native averaged 4.8 kills and 2.9 digs.
Sherry Trimble led the SAC in assists per set with 12.32, the top mark on C-N single season's list. She finished her career with 2,386 helpers, good for fifth in the records.
The 2017 version of the Eagles honored the 15-year anniversary of the team during an Oct. 20 sweep of Newberry. A half dozen members of that group reunited and signed the volleyball court in the current team's locker room – a rite of passage for graduating seniors.
Carson-Newman has added a region championship and five NCAA Playoff trips to its resume but no team has matched a dominant 2002 unit. From an outsider's perspective a 31-win season was just that, a season. Robinson's team was years in the making and set the table for a program trying to find its identity.
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