November 1, 2025

Rebound sweep of Catawba hands volleyball tenth SAC win of the year

Good serving and resilient defense let Carson-Newman slip by Catawba for the season sweep and get them back in the win column.

Carson-Newman

19-4,10-4 SAC

Catawba

8-11,5-9 SAC

Final	1	2	3	T
Carson-Newman 19-4,10-4 SAC	25	25	25	3
Catawba 8-11,5-9 SAC	22	17	23	0

SALISBURY, N.C. – Good serving and resilient defense let Carson-Newman slip by Catawba for the season sweep and get them back in the win column.

"I'm proud of the way we responded today from last night. We cleaned up a few things and were better with unforced errors," said head Coach Cat Collins.

This is C-N's 16th sweep of the year, and gets them just one game out of their first 20-win season under Collins. The Eagles sit in sole possession of 4^th place in the SAC, four games up on the next best UVA-Wise.

Three different Eagles were in double digits in the dig department in a game with long rallies. Ultimately, the Eagles made fewer errors than Catawba and bested them by short margins in most statistical categories.

Carson-Newman was down in the first few points, but fell into system in set one, pulling out to a 9-4 lead following three kills by Maddie Hurst to trigger a Catawba timeout. Emerson Ahsmuhs jumped on the chaos caused by Hurst, piggybacking to grab four kills herself and jump the Eagles out to a 16-8 lead before another Catawba timeout. Errors killed the Indians in this first set, hitting .061 with seven errors. The Catawba Indians wouldn't go away, though, taking advantage of eight attacking errors from Carson-Newman to crawl back and hit the 20 mark, but C-N would hang on to win the set 25-20.

The Eagles kept struggling with errors early in the second set, with three errors to help Catawba stay tied in the set 7-7 in the early goings. The Catawba offense was firing when they got chances, but six service aces from the Eagles in set two helped throw the Catawba Indians out of system late in the second set to pull out to a 19-14 lead. Blair Cherry led the charge with three aces off her hot hand. Ahsmuhs collected an ace, and Addie Smith blistered one to the floor, and finally, an attack error from Catawba would end the set 25-17.

In set three, it remained close. With a 14-14 score midway through the set, Carson-Newman jumped ahead 17-14 with another ace from Cherry and kills from Smith and Ahsmuhs. Catawba was using the three-weapon rotation of Martina Foster, Sofia Beard, and Lillie Kate Rogers, but a stifling block from Ahsmuhs and Bella Cardello would end the game.

Maddie Hurst was the kill leader on the floor as the only player to notch double-digit kills (10). Emerson Ahsmuhs was one kill shy of a double-double with nine kills to go along with 15 digs.

Blair Cherry's four-ace effort from the serving line was crucial to throwing Catawba out of the system, and Carson-Newman grabbed nine service aces as a team. Cherry also grabbed digs in the contest.

Trinity Hafey was the next best in the dig department with 14 digs while Raychel Ehlers followed closely behind with 13. Bella Cardello was a wall at the net, with four blocks to help C-N to 5.0 total.

"We still have room for improvement and are going to continue to work on our weaknesses and mentality as we enter and get ready for the postseason," said Collins.

Now at 19-4 overall and 10-4 in SAC play, the Eagles will look to Tuesday when they return home to face Lincoln-Memorial, a team that they swept just less than a month ago in Harrogate. The game against LMU begins at 7:00 PM on November 4^th at Holt Fieldhouse.