October 7, 2025

Carson-Newman comes out on the winning side of tight sets to beat LMU in four

Volleyball pulls out tight three-point victories in sets one and two en route to a four-set victory.

Carson-Newman

13-3,4-3 SAC

Lincoln Memorial

7-10,3-5 SAC

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Carson-Newman 13-3,4-3 SAC	25	25	16	25	3
Lincoln Memorial 7-10,3-5 SAC	23	23	25	17	1

VIDEO: Cat Collins Interview

HARROGATE, Tenn. – Volleyball pulls out tight three-point victories in sets one and two en route to a four-set victory.

This is Carson-Newman's fourth victory in set play this year and the first time they have followed a loss with anything but a three-set sweep. The Eagles showed resilience, being down in each of the first three sets.

"We talked about not playing with regrets and making sure that at the end of the day when you leave, you did everything possible to help your team. And so just revisiting that, making the game a little more lifelike instead of life or death. Taking some of the pressure off so that they can just work better together as a group and just create better results together instead of individually," said coach Cat Collins following the win.

In set one, Carson-Newman was down 3-5 before two kills from Emerson Ahsmuhs tied the set. LMU pulled out to a 14-10 lead following a few kills from the Railsplitters' Finley Sparks, but Maddie Hurst responded to tie the set at 16. Blair Cherry spread the ball to five different hitters to keep the set tied at 23. A service ace by Trinity Hafey would allow the Eagles to take the lead and end set one with a 25-23 victory. Ahsmuhs had six kills in the first set while Trinity Hafey led the defense with 7 digs. The Eagles hit .364 in set one.

Set two was much of the same. The Eagles trailed LMU 20-16 toward the tail end of the set, but the Railsplitters couldn't find a way to be consistent. Four attack errors and a service error tied the set at 23, where kills from Ahsmuhs and Hurst would close the set 25-23. Carson-Newman put up three blocks to help stop the LMU attack, which was cruising at the net at this point. LMU's Sparks gathered seven kills in the second set while Cherry spread the ball to four different hitters three times, picking up 12 assists.

In set three, Carson-Newman couldn't find an answer for Sparks. 5 kills from the freshman in set three, combined with a few great slide plays from the freshman middle, Sarah Robbins, let LMU hit .256 in set three. Despite 16 digs from the defense on the Eagle's side of the floor, Carson-Newman would drop set three 25-16.

In set four, the Eagles sped up their offense and came out hot. The Eagles jumped out to a 10-3 lead following runs from some of the Eagles' strongest servers in Annie Dziczkowski, Hafey, and Avery Sziksai. Three more attack errors from LMU would put the Eagles up 15-7 midway through the set, and a late push by the Railsplitters was not enough to best the Eagles. Carson-Newman would win set four, holding Lincoln Memorial to a -.065 hitting percentage.

Four players for C-N's attack were in double-digit kills. Emerson Ahsmuhs was the leader on the floor with 17 kills to go along with 16 digs and two blocks. This is the sophomore's double-double of the season. Raychel Ehlers (12), Annie Dziczkowski (11), and Maddie Hurst (10) were the other Eagles to help the team combine for their highest kills performance since September 16^th at Lee.

Blair Cherry joined Ahsmuhs in the double-double club this evening with 46 assists and 13 digs. This is her 34^th double-double of her career. The junior is now less than 300 assists away from moving into the top 5 all-time at Carson-Newman in career assists.

"It's good for offense. That's a big thing to our passing being good, but also Blair (1:38) making sure she's spreading the ball, which as attackers when you're doing good, it's hard to want to share. But they do a great job at helping each other out, making sure we're one-on-one and then passing allowed us to do all that," said Collins.

Trinity Hafey was the defensive leader. With 17 digs to couple with a service ace, Hafey landed her highest dig total in nearly a month since she dug out 18 against North Greenville on September 13^th.

As a team, the Eagles grabbed their highest dig total since September 13^th with 67 digs, and contained LMU to a .176 hitting percentage.

"I think mainly just we keep talking about chemistry and making sure that all the interactions we have and all of our responses are adding back to our chemistry ," said Collins.

With this win, Carson-Newman snaps a nine-game home winning streak LMU had been building, and picks up its first win against the Railsplitters since 2023. Carson-Newman now sits tied with Coker and Tusculum for 4^th place in the conference. Tusculum will visit Carson-Newman next Tuesday at 6:00 PM.