JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman Eagles (4-1, 1-0 South Atlantic Conference) hit .388 beating the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears (1-4, 0-1 SAC) 25-18, 25-18 and 25-10 Friday night at Holt Fieldhouse. The .388 attack percentage is the highest clip against a league opponent since October 12, 2013 when the Eagles hit .440 at Brevard.
"I was really proud of our serve receive," coach Dan Ahiers said. "Really proud of our defense. Offensively we had a fantastic night because we passed the ball so well."
The first set featured nine ties and four lead changes with neither team leading by more than two points until Carson-Newman took a 9-6 edge. With the Eagles winning five of six points to go ahead 15-9, Lenoir-Rhyne was forced to use a timeout. The Bears trimmed the lead to two points at 16-14 before four unanswered points allowed the home team to seal the deal on a kill by senior outside hitter Molly Locke (College Grove, Tenn.).
The Eagles hit .394 in the opening frame compared to a -.040 percentage from the Bears as Locke had seven kills to start things off.
Carson-Newman steadily worked up a lead in the second stanza jumping out to a 10-5 lead before Lenoir-Rhyne closed the gap to 15-13. The Eagles captured 10 of the final 15 rallies capped by a kill from freshman middle blocker Natalie Harris (Monroe, N.C.).
12 assists from sophomore setter Anna Patton (Franklin, Tenn.) led an attack that hit .333 in the game.
A wire-to-wire third set win for the Eagles saw Carson-Newman hit .448 with just one attack error in the frame. A 16-5 start to the set gave the Eagles ample separation to cruise to a 25-10 victory.
"The girls are finally learning we are a very good sideout team," Ahiers said. "Tonight we earned points. We earned points when we were serving. A lot of that had to do with we are a very aggressive serving team. We missed a lot of serves in the first four matches. We missed a lot of serves in the first set tonight. Now those serves are starting to drop in and it makes it tough on the opponent."
Locke led all players with 19 kills and a .562 attack percentage as she chipped in six digs.
Patton had 35 assists, a service ace and seven digs while Harris had eight kills on a .467 attack percentage.
Freshman middle blocker Allie Foster (Johnson City, Tenn.) had seven kills and a .429 attack percentage as well as a match-high two block assists.
"Our serve receive was really, really good," Foster said. "Our setter, Anna [Patton], can get her hands on any ball. We just ran all kinds of different sets. I think it really helps us and flows really well."
Brianna Gottberg was the standout player for Lenoir-Rhyne with 13 assists, eight digs and two kills as the Bears could muster just a .067 attack percentage.
The Eagles continue league play Saturday evening at 6 p.m. when the Brevard Tornados come to Holt Fieldhouse for a 6 p.m. first serve. All of the action can be viewed in high definition by visiting cneagles.com/live five minutes prior to the start of the match.
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