Unrelenting Lions visit scorching Eagles on Halloween

C-N Match Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Riding a six-match winning streak, Carson-Newman returns to Holt Fieldhouse Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. to host South Atlantic Conference opponent Mars Hill looking to complete the season sweep of the Lions.

The program is playing on Halloween for the seventh time with a record of 3-3 in the first six efforts having won its last time on Oct. 31, 2015 in four sets at Coker.

The Eagles are seeking their seventh straight win. A win on Tuesday would mark the longest winning streak by C-N since Oct. 10-24, 2015 when the unit picked up seven straight victories. It would be tied for the seventh-longest winning streak in the history of the program matching the 1993, 2014 and 2015 (twice) teams. The longest string came in 2002 with a 15-match mark.

Carson-Newman (14-10, 9-7) holds the all-time advantage in the series having won 38 of the 60 matches with a 17-9 lead in outings played at Holt Fieldhouse. The Eagles have swept the regular-season series just once this decade doing so in 2014. Mars Hill (7-15, 5-10) has won just six of the last 38 meetings.

In the first meeting this season on Sept. 9, C-N won in four sets as Morgan Ballard set a new SAC record with 58 digs in the effort. It stands as the 10th-most digs in a match of any length in the history of NCAA volleyball.

Ballard's 6.93 digs per set margin currently sits atop the program's ledger besting Blaire Young's mark of 6.79 in 2004. With 603 total scoops, Ballard sits in sixth on the single-season. Daphne Epting (1996) had 635.

Marnie Streeter pummeled 22 kills while hitting .231 on the day marking the second straight match with 20 or more kills. Megan Oldenburger (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) tallied a double-double with 11 kills and 12 digs.

Sally Anne Johnson was the lone Lion in double-digits in kills with 11. Sarah Pasour notched a double-double with 17 assists and 11 digs. Elizabeth Kaeser paced the team with 32 scoops.

Mars Hill is 3-7 in its last 10 matches after winning three straight contests at the end of September and the first match of October. Three of its five league wins have come on the road.

The Lions rank first in Division II in digs per set as a team with 22.22 on the year. Six times in 2017 they have posted at least 100 digs in an affair. Rebecca Butler leads a group of three players inside the top-15 in the conference in digs per set as Butler has registered 4.65 digs per frame, seventh in the SAC.

For a team that ranks eighth in the league in hitting percentage at .151, Johnson is sixth in the SAC with a .303 margin. She has made just nine attack errors over her last 91 swings hitting just shy of .400 during the five outings.

Lauren Hochstetler is the team's top option offensively averaging nine swings per set for the nation's leader in attacks. Hochstetler has at least 10 kills in each of her last six matches with a double-double in five in-a-row. In a four-set win against Tusculum on Oct. 24, she had 12 kills and 32 digs.

Billiam "Billy" Spunkmeyer will have the broadcast on cneagles.com/live as the Eagle Sports Network will provide the broadcast for free. Fan cans find statistics on cneagles.com/livestats with updates on Twitter by following @CNathletics.

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