October 25, 2025

Rowdy crowd propels Carson-Newman volleyball to five-set win over Catawba

Down two sets to one, Eagles volleyball leaned into their identity to pull out their third fifth-set win of the season.

Catawba

8-9,5-7 SAC

Carson-Newman

17-3,8-3 SAC

Final	1	2	3	4	5	T
Catawba 8-9,5-7 SAC	12	25	25	17	9	2
Carson-Newman 17-3,8-3 SAC	25	23	18	25	15	3

VIDEO: Cat Collins Postgame

VIDEO: Maddie Hurst Postgame

VIDEO: Annie Dziczkowski Postgame

VIDEO: Highlights vs Catawba

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Down two sets to one, Eagles volleyball leaned into their identity to pull out their third fifth-set win of the season.

With the win, the Eagles improve to 17-3 and 8-3 in the SAC to tie with Lenoir-Rhyne for third place in the conference standings. Catawba slips to 8-9 overall and 5-7 in league play.

"We started off really strong, finished really strong. But those second and third sets, just kind of lost our groove. Passing kind of trickled away a little bit, and then our attacking offense slowed down," said Head coach Cat Collins. "It created different looks for us. We tried a few things to answer it, but Catawba did a great job tonight."

The tale of the tape was a stiff defensive effort full of long rallies as both teams were working overtime to get every ball off the floor. Both teams surpassed the 70 dig mark in the contest.

On top of that, Holt Fieldhouse was rocking above 90 decibels on this alumni night and homecoming weekend. Fans brought signs and loud voices to help carry heaps of energy through the match.

"We definitely kind of play to the energy in the room. And so the energy was so high in that first set and we came out and destroyed them," said Collins. "And then our alumni too is just awesome to have support for our sport. And then the girls feed off of it and play great because of it."

It was a serving clinic from the Eagles early in set one. Annie Dziczkowski threw Catawba off early with two aces, and Blair Cherry tacked on two throughout the set that let the Eagles jump out to a 9-3 lead before Catawba would take a timeout. Dziczkowski kept firing at the net, though, putting down four kills in the first set to keep the Eagles in control. Both defenses made this one an entertaining, long-rally game. The Eagles picked up 15 digs in the first set. Maddie Hurst put two away once the Eagles amassed 20 points, which would help close the set 25-12 on a Catawba attack error.

Catawba had a healthy lead midway through set two. The Catawba College Catawba Indian's defense firmed up and caused 10 attacking errors from the Eagles in the second frame. Two blocks from the Catawba Indians with a minimal three attacking errors was enough to let them grab a set two victory 25-23.

The dogfight continued in set three. It was tied 7-7 until Catawba's Martina Foster served up three aces in a row to put them ahead 12-7. Carson-Newman would take a timeout to ice Foster and found success off two kills from Dziczkowski and Raychel Ehlers. Catawba took advantage of Eagle attack errors, pulling ahead 17-10 with a few momentum-shifting blocks. Maddie Hurst wasn't going to let that slide, though. The sophomore notched three blocks of her own to help the Eagles crawl back to an 18-15 score before Catawba would take a timeout. It worked too; two kills from Sofia Beard and another Catawba block put them up 21-15 to trigger an Eagles timeout. C-N would not catch up, though, and Catawba would take set three 25-18.

It was all Eagles early in set four. Carson-Newman grabbed 10 kills in the first 13 points when Hurst lit up Holt Fieldhouse with a few missiles. A service ace from Ahsmuhs would cause a Catawba timeout when they were down 13-5. Ahsmuhs and Hurst seemed to work in tandem throughout the set and were complimented by Dziczkowski. Ahsmuhs exploded for 8 kills in the fourth frame while Hurst grabbed 6 and Dziczkowski notched 4. Three different Eagles also built up 7 digs in the fourth set with Addie Smith, Ahsmuhs and Trinity Hafey passing dimes to Blair Cherry, who had 15 assists.

Set five began with an Addie Smith kill that was quickly traded with another block from Catawba to level the score at 1. Two kills from Ahsmuhs and one from Cardello would allow the Eagles to take a 7-3 lead. Despite a kill from Catawba's Lilly Kate Rogers, Ahsmuhs would take another high IQ swing to make it 8-4 for the side switch. The defense did their job, keeping the ball up just enough for Eagle attackers Ahsmuhs and Dziczkowski to make it 11-6 and cause a Catawba timeout. Two more kills from Hurst were enough to get the job done, and Carson-Newman would hang on to win 15-9.

Hurst logged 20 kills in the five-set effort and Ahsmuhs was right behind with 19. Dziczkowski also pitched in a phenomenal 15 kill night to help the Eagles to a 72 kill performance and a .245 hitting percentage.

"A lot of teams will have like that one attacker that they heavily lean on. And for us, we have so many options, which is really why we're able to be successful," said Collins.

Ahsmuhs recorded 20 digs on the night as well, marking her fifth double-double in a row. Trinity Hafey was the next best with 19 digs. Blair Cherry was also on the double-double train, grabbing 51 assists to go along with 12 digs. Addie Smith also had 10 digs.

It was a great serving game for the Eagles, who logged 11 total team service aces throughout the match, which marks a season high. Both Annie Dcizkowski and Blair Cherry led the effort with four aces each.

Hurst was also the leader on the blocking front, notching a season high seven blocks. This is Hurst's 6^th game in a row with 10+ kills and her first game of the season with five or more blocks.

"We're definitely focusing more and more on chemistry, and kind of the uncontrollable things right now because our skills are there and we have every ability to beat a team with our skills. So we are making sure that emotionally, mentally, physically that we're also there," said Collins.

Carson-Newman moves onto a three-game road trip beginning with Emory & Henry on Tuesday. Catawba and the Eagles will face off again in just over a week on November 1 in Salisbury.