October 16, 2025

Eagles look to extending winning streak with Friday battle at Coker

Coming off a statement win over Tusculum, Eagles volleyball hits the road for one of the longer road trips of the season for a battle with Coker on Friday.

Carson-Newman

15-3,6-3 SAC

Coker

8-10,4-6 SAC

Final	1	2	3	4	5	T
Carson-Newman 15-3,6-3 SAC	25	18	25	17	21	3
Coker 8-10,4-6 SAC	22	25	20	25	19	2

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Coming off a statement win over Tusculum, Eagles volleyball hits the road for one of the longer road trips of the season for a battle with Coker on Friday. Carson-Newman is 14-3 on the season and 5-3 in SAC play, good for fourth in the conference. The Eagles are one game back of Lenoir-Rhyne in third and have a game in hand on the Bears.

It was a bloodbath on Tuesday against the Pioneers. It felt like the Eagles couldn't miss inside their home gymnasium, putting down 49 kills and hitting an astounding .616 on the match. Their four attack errors were a season low, and set a single-game record for attacking percentage in the history of Carson-Newman volleyball. The crowd inside Holt Fieldhouse showed up for their home team, and Tusculum fans traveled to Jefferson City for a look at the 11E Rivalry. Despite the largest crowd of the season and the lack of head coach Cat Collins, who was missing from the bench after celebrating the birth of her child, the Eagles looked the most confident that they have all season.

Maddie Hurst had her best game of the season in the contest. With 15 kills, Hurst notched the third-highest single-game hitting percentage in C-N volleyball history (.636) and set her season high in kills. Emerson Ahsmuhs and Annie Dziczkowski were also on fire with 10 kills apiece. Ahsmuhs also grabbed a team-leading 11 digs to hand her eighth double-double of 2025 and her second in a row.

Cherry notched her 10th game this season with 30 or more assists and helped on defense with seven digs. Her service ace in Tuesday's game marks the 7th game in a row she's aced an opponent. Trinity Hafey chipped in nine digs and also contributed to the best serving performance the Eagles have seen since September 9th. Her two aces were second only to Ahsmuhs (she landed three aces in a row) for a team total of eight.

The Eagles' two-game winning streak is the longest since they opened the season with 10 wins in a row. They will prepare to walk into a Coker gym that hosts an 8-9 team with a 4-5 record in SAC play. The Cobras began the season in great shape, beating teams that they were not anticipated to topple and taking sets from teams that received votes this season. Coker was projected 11th in the preseason poll, only above Emory & Henry.

This new-look Coker team has been proving the poll wrong all season, though. They have beaten SAC opponents in Newberry, E&H, LMU, and Catawba. October has been a challenge for them, though, having lost three in a row coming into this contest. This team consists of 12 new faces that the Eagles would not have seen last year, with nine freshmen and three transfers.

The offense has a relatively new look, save for the Cobras' top hitter, Cayla Gilmore, who leads this Cobra offense after a year of experience at the college level. Gilmore is 17th in the SAC with 2.55 kills per set and is just one of four outsides Coker favors. Freshman Addie Bittner has also joined the offensive conversation, averaging 2.45 kills per set. At the same time, Alyssa Carey (1.92 k/s) also contributes in her second season with Coker, and the transfer from Western Colorado, Pelin Aksoy (1.88 k/s), rounds out the front four. The Cobras' offense struggles in comparison to the SAC, landing 10th in the standings in kills per set (11.13) and 11th in assists per set (10.34).

This Cobra's defense has helped them win games this season, though. Coker ranks 4th in the conference in digs per set (17.93) and 6th in blocks per set (1.88). They lead the SAC in total digs, combining for over 1,200 this season. The back row has been anchored by Meadow Morse, who ranks 7th in the SAC in digs per set with 4.32 per frame, while Bittner has been a two-way weapon, landing 10th in the category, averaging 3.82 digs per set. McKay Kasper leads the blocking effort for the Cobras, ranking 9th among SAC opponents with 0.86 blocks per set.

Coker is coming into this game on a three-game losing streak. They most recently fell in three sets to Newberry on Tuesday. Addie Bittner led the attack with 11 kills, while Meadow Morse picked up 12 digs. The Cobras made 17 attacking errors that ultimately led to their demise. This will be the first time back in their home gymnasium since the beginning of the month.

The rough goings of late for Coker were more what SAC volleyball fans were expecting out of the young team based upon their last season. The Cobras were 5-19 overall in 2024 and 4-14 in the conference. The Cobras were ranked near the bottom of the league in the major offensive categories. The landed 11th among SAC opponents in kills per set (10.53) and hitting percentage (.123), and were at the bottom of the league in service aces per set. Cayla Gilmore and Taylor Hills were the best two attackers for Coker, averaging over two and a half kills a set.

The best part of their game last season was their defense, landing 8th in the conference in digs per set (17.04) and 6th in blocks per set (2.01). Both McKay Kasper and Kailyn Ivy were averaging just under a block per set, while Meadow Morse was 4th in the SAC in digs per set with 4.95.

Their season ended last year with three consecutive losses. The previous time Coker has made the postseason was in 2017, when they ended up 7-13 in the conference, but lost to Anderson in the quarterfinals.

This will be the 19th all-time meeting between Coker and C-N. The matchup between Carson-Newman and Coker dates back to September 28, 2013, when Carson-Newman won the first all-time matchup in three sets. Since then, it's been C-N domination. The Cobras lost the first six games of the series until the 2016 season, when Coker swept the series that year. The Eagles dominate Coker in the series record 14-4.

Despite the trend of success, the most recent match between the two teams belongs to the Cobras. This loss was on the road to Coker. The four-set loss occurred during the challenging final stretch of the 2024 season for C-N when they lost six in a row. While the Eagles lost the last match, Carson-Nemwan has won eight of the last ten matchups. Four of the three all-time losses to Coker have come on the road. The last time the Cobras beat the Eagles in Holt Fieldhouse was in 2016 when they fell in four sets. Carson-Newman is 7-1 against Coker at home.

As far as set splits go, C-N has swept Coker 10 out of the 18 games played, and the Cobras have forced a fourth set just three times throughout the wins for C-N. Coker has never swept the Eagles, and only one game has gone to a fifth set, when Coker beat the Eagles on September 23, 2016. In terms of days of the week, Coker has seen success on Fridays; three of their four wins in the series have come on Fridays. C-N is 6-3 in Friday matches with Coker.

In the last match between these two teams, Coker (5-16, 4-11 SAC) won just its second match in its home arena in 2024. The loss to Coker was Carson-Newman's first since 2018. The loss also snapped a five-match winning streak against the Cobras. Coker was led by a combination of Cayla Gilmore and Taylor Hills, who found 14 and 16 kills, respectively, while setter Laila Hixon logged a double-double (17 assists, 11 digs). Meadow Morse and Alyssa Carey put on a defensive clinic, logging 17 and 20 digs, respectively, while McKay Kasper had four blocks.

Carson-Newman had a variety of individual standouts, including Maddie Hurst, who led the Eagles with 15 kills. Emerson Ahsmuhs and Taylor Keeran each had 11. Setter Blair Cherry found her third straight double-double with 38 assists and 15 digs. Bennett McCombs also collected 15 digs while the Eagles put away 7 aces.

This is the 18th match of the season for the Eagles before they come back to Holt Fieldhouse for a two-game homestand against Mars Hill and Catawba. First serve for Carson-Newman against Coker is slated for 7:00 PM in Hartsville.