Roehrkasse’s monster match pushes Eagles past Lions
September 7, 2019

Roehrkasse’s monster match pushes Eagles past Lions

HARROGATE, Tenn. – Kaina Roehrkasse pouned out 15 kills and a .667 hitting percentage to anchor a five-set Carson-Newman victory over Emmanuel 25-13, 21-25, 25-12, 20-25 and 15-6 Saturday afternoon at Mary Mars Gym.

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HARROGATE, Tenn. – Kaina Roehrkasse pounded out 15 kills and a .667 hitting percentage to anchor a five-set Carson-Newman victory over Emmanuel 25-13, 21-25, 25-12, 20-25 and 15-6 Saturday afternoon at Mary Mars Gym.

"It was a great win today over a quality opponent," Carson-Newman coach Dave Franklin said. "In an up and down match, I felt our team grew mentally today as we were able to let go of errors and just continue to compete no matter what the score was. Overall, it was a solid opening weekend that gives us plenty to improve on but makes me excited for the journey!"

The .667 hitting clip from Roehrkasse was the highest clip by an Eagle with double-digit kills since All-American Jenna Wilson had 12 kills on 18 swings at Coker on Oct. 31, 2014. The last time a C-N player hit .600 came in the 2018 match against Emmanuel (2-1) when Erin Edwards (Midlothian, Va.) hit .650, 13 kills on 20 attacks. Overall, the Fort Collins, Colo. added 4.5 blocks, six digs and three assists.

Megan Oldenburger (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) stuffed the stat sheet for Carson-Newman (2-1) with 18 kills hitting .326 adding 22 digs.

Fellow outside hitter Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.) posted 10 kills and 18 digs. With the effort, the senior brings her career kills total to 1,056 and into 12th on the school's list.

The specialists were led by Morgan Ballard (Weaverville, N.C.) who posted 25 digs and setter Madison Rademacher (Broomfield, Colo.) who added 26 assists.

The Eagles came out of the locker room on fire posting a .429 team hitting clip with 15 kills in the opening game led by five from Oldenburger. C-N broke the set open with a 10-2 burst to expand its lead to 16-6. Cruising to victory, Erin Edwards (Midlothian, Va.) finished the set with a kill.

In the second set, Franklin's unit could not find the same consistency committing five attack errors to just seven kills. Three blocks and six Emmanuel hitting miscues kept the Eagles in the match. With the score knotted at 19, the Lions rattled off four straight points before closing out the set on an ace from Mia Cotton.

It was an ominous start to the third game for the Eagles who found themselves in a 10-5 hole. The set flipped in a hurry with C-N winning 13 unanswered. In 2018, the most consecutive points won in a set came on Oct. 13 in the fourth set against Newberry, an 11-0 burst. Overall, the Eagles finished the frame on a 20-2 scoring run to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Each team's offensive numbers were similar in the fourth frame, but Emmanuel broke a late 17-17 tie by winning four straight to get the separation needed to force a fifth set.

To open the deciding stanza, the Eagles won the first four rallies and nine of the opening 12 to force Emmanuel to use a pair of timeouts. C-N coasted to victory on the backs of Oldenburger and Roehrkasse who each had two kills in the waning moments to punctuate the win.

On the day C-N posted a .220 hitting percentage with 53 kills, 81 digs, 13 blocks and 11 service aces compared to a .092 mark, 44 kills, 68 digs, five aces and seven rejections from Emmanuel.

Jessica Gray paved the way for the Lions with 17 kills and 10 digs while Jenna Woodruff added 10 and 14. Stephanie Hardy dished out 32 assists and had 12 digs with Aysha Avery leading the back line with 20 scoops.

South Atlantic Conference play is next on the docket for the Eagles with the newest member of the league first up. Virginia-Wise opens Holt Fieldhouse on Friday night at 7 p.m. The Eagle Sports Network has the call by visiting cneagles.com/live for the live broadcast.

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