VIDEO: Kody DuBarry Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – First-year Carson-Newman beach volleyball coach Kody DuBarry unveiled his team's 2018 schedule on Tuesday, which features sixteen contests later this spring.

C-N will host one tournament and two head-to-head matches this season before traveling to North Carolina, Middle Tennessee and Maryland for three two-day tournaments. The four contests played at the C-N Sand Courts mark the most in program history.

"With the separation of the (indoor and beach) programs, it was kind of what the goal for the program was," Du Barry said of the schedule. "The opportunity to be able to have that many matches and host that much is kind of what we were looking for, so we're super excited about it."

The Eagles will face Lincoln Memorial three times throughout the season, including a head-to-head match against the Railsplitters at the C-N Sand Courts to start off the April slate of matches. The Eagles hold a 3-3 record against their rival with the Railsplitters enjoying a three-match winning streak after sweeping C-N last season.

DuBarry's squad will host a two-day tournament against teams from LMU, Huntingdon and Austin Peay on March 23 and 24.

March will close out with a trip to UNC Wilmington for the two-day UNCW Tournament where they will take part in four matches, facing off with Webber International, UNCW, Missouri Baptist and North Florida.

The middle of April will see the team traveling to Austin Peay the Ohio Valley Challenge to take on Spring Hill, LMU, Morehead State and Austin Peay. The Blue and Orange close out the season with a trip to Maryland for the Stevenson Invitational to take on the hosting Mustangs and the Towson Tigers. This will be the team's first return to the event since the 2016 season.

This year's squad is the first in program history to be strictly devoted to beach volleyball. Just one player returns from last season's team, senior Morgan Harlan who has also served as a member of the indoor team at C-N.

"Super excited about Morgan; she wasn't 100-percent sure if she was going to play kind of at the start of the indoor season," DuBarry said of the veteran. "Super grateful for her; she's going to be a huge part of this.

"One of the big overarching goals for the season was to grow as a program – me, myself, and the girls as well with this super young group – so she's going to lead us."

Harlan racked up a 2-3 record in 2017, spending most of her time paired up with Alex Biro at the No. 1 and 2 spots before an injury cut her season short. She is one of just three seniors on a team that is comprised of ten freshmen and one sophomore.

"It's going to be a huge learning process and growing process," DuBarry assessed. "There's going to be some growing pains, we all know that, I know that, the girls know that, but we're excited about this young, youthful, fun group. I have a great group. I am so thankful and so blessed to have such an awesome group.

"We're going to go for it, we're going to work as hard as we can and have some fun."

The Eagles look to improve from their 2017 season record of 2-6. The lone wins of that season were on day two of the Austin Peay Tournament when C-N held a 4-1 advantage over Missouri Baptist before sweeping UT Martin, 5-0.