ANDERSON, S.C. – For the first time in three weeks, Carson-Newman has lost back-to-back matches as the Eagles fell in straight stanzas to red-hot Anderson 23-25, 16-25 and 14-25 Friday evening at the Abney Athletic Center.
"Our Eagles were unable to perform in serve receive tonight and that led to a tough evening," Carson-Newman coach Dave Franklin said. "Give credit to Anderson who is leading the conference for a reason. They do not let up on you in any aspect of the game and their offense is as good as we have in our region. Lots of moments, emotions and execution to learn from tonight. One more weekend to go and we look forward to preparing next week with big implications on our season."
Anderson (23-3, 16-1) extends the fourth-longest active winning streak in the country to 18 matches while pushing its home string to 14 outings and improve to 10-0 at home in 2017.
It is the fourth straight loss for Carson-Newman (14-12, 9-9) against the Trojans as the Eagles fall to 11-12 in the all-time series.
Leading the way offensively for the Eagles was Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.) with 11 kills on 35 swings. Natalie Harris (Monroe, N.C.) added eight kills on a .319 hitting clip.
Anna Patton (Franklin, Tenn.) notched a double-double with 19 assists and 10 digs. Morgan Ballard (Weaverville, N.C.) paced the defense with 16 scoops.
Streeter and Anderson outside hitter Marissa Mitter put on a clinic in the opening set with seven and six kills respectively. The Eagles came out of the gates firing taking a 7-1 lead to force a timeout from the Trojans. Anderson began its charge down 13-7 when it won four of the next five to pull within two. C-N pushed the lead back to four at 20-16 only to see the home team win five straight points. The Eagles captured the lead back at 23-22 only to lose the final three rallies.
To start the second set Anderson opened up a 7-1 advantage to force a timeout from C-N. The Eagles were able to claw back and close the gap to a deuce thrice. At 16-14, the Trojans ran off nine of the final 11 to jump out to a 2-0 lead.
In the third frame, Anderson committed just two attack errors piling up a .467 attack percentage. It was a 6-6 tie when the home group won 14 of the next 15 points to take control. Rachel Burts put the match on ice with a kill.
Mitter led all players with 15 kills hitting .406 to go along with 14 digs while Burts chipped in 14 smashese on a .435 margin. Emily Conlin paced the offense with 42 assists.
Cumulatively, C-N posted a .134 hitting clip with 50 digs, four blocks and one service ace while Anderson hit .265 with 56 digs, seven aces and five rejections.
The 2017 regular season comes to a close next weekend as C-N hosts Wingate and Queens on Friday and Saturday respectively. Each outing will be aired on the Eagle Sports Network at cneagles.com/live starting 15 minutes before the first serve of each contest.
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