GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – In a Tuesday evening rivalry matchup in South Atlantic Conference play, Tusculum toppled Carson-Newman 25-10, 20-25, 20-25, 25-10 and 15-9 to complete the season sweep of the Eagles at Pioneer Arena.
"If our team was looked at as a boxer, the scouting report would say, 'can take a punch and will come back swinging'," Carson-Newman coach Dave Franklin said. "We went to a rival gym and got punched in the mouth and came back swinging. As a coach, it's fun to have athletes who have that grit to fight, to get knocked and just keep standing back up.
"Obviously we must get better in certain areas technically but we have a champion's heart. Our achilles heel tripped us up again tonight as we simply couldn't pass well enough. I must find a way to train us a bit better in the ball control area. We won't quit. We have a schedule coming up that we can end on a good streak and go into the off season on a high and that is our focus."
Senior libero Taylor Lowe (Franklin, Tenn.) moved into second place on the program's all-time dig list by matching her career-high with 39 digs to bring her career tally to 2,062.
After dropping four consecutive matches in the all-time series Tusculum (11-12, 6-9) notches the season sweep for the first time since 2013 over Carson-Newman (3-20, 2-13). It is the first 20-loss campaign for the Eagles since recording a 12-23 record in 1999.
Tusculum hit a scorching .655 with 19 kills on 29 swings with zero errors committed in the first set. Carson-Newman used a timeout after falling behind 5-1 before pulling within three at 7-4. The Pioneers followed by winning nine of the next 10 rallies to go ahead 17-5. A kill from Laryssa Welch capped a 15-point first set victory.
The Eagles started the second set ahead 5-1 and held a 11-9 edge when the Pioneers reeled off five straight points to go on top 14-11. A 6-2 stretch saw C-N take a 19-17 lead before closing with points on five of the last seven rallies to tie the match.
The score was tied seven times in the third stanza with the final time coming at 15 when Carson-Newman rattled off seven consecutive points. A kill from sophomore middle blocker Natalie Harris (Monroe, N.C.) put the visitors ahead 2-1 in the match.
Tusculum scored nine of the first 12 points in the fourth set and used a 12-2 sequence to surge ahead 21-5. Three straight smashes from Madison Shumaker capped the fourth frame as the Pioneers hit .300 with 12 kills and zero mistakes.
The fifth set was tied just one time, at two. A 4-1 spurt over the next five rallies was all the Pioneers needed to take control. Trailing 8-6, C-N saw Tusculum win four of the next five to go ahead 12-7 before closing out the match.
In the match, Carson-Newman pounded out a .125 attack percentage, 85 digs, eight rejections and four aces with while Tusculum countered with a .214 hitting clip, 85 digs, 14 service aces and six blocks.
Freshman outside hitter Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.) cranked out a match-high 19 kills while recording a .264 attack percentage. Freshman outside hitter Abbie McFarlane (McKinney, Texas) added 10 smashes.
Junior setter Anna Patton (Franklin, Tenn.) tallied 35 assists, eight digs, three service aces and 2.5 blocks.
Shumaker led the way for Tusculum with 13 kills and five digs and Welch added 10 kills. Hallie Zumack handed out 25 assists and nine digs while Melissa Mazur had 19 digs and four service aces.
The Eagles return to Holt Fieldhouse for a pair of matches this weekend playing host to Coker Friday night at 7 p.m. and Wingate Saturday evening at 5 p.m. Friday evening's match will be broadcast on cneagles.com/live with the Eagle Sports Network providing the commentary of the match.
- CN -
