JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The 59th all-time meeting between Carson-Newman and Tusculum is a battle in the South Atlantic Conference Volleyball Championships Quarterfinals Tuesday evening at Holt Fieldhouse for a 7 p.m. first serve.
The two schools finished tied for fourth in the league with Carson-Newman (15-13) holding the tiebreaker to get the additional home match. In two regular season meetings, the road team came out victorious with C-N winning in four sets on Sept. 8 and the Pioneers captureing a five-set win on Sept. 26.
Tusculum (15-15) did not have an answer for Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.) in either contest as the sophomore posted 38 kills on a .269. Morgan Ballard (Weaverville, N.C.) had 66 digs combined including 47 in the five-set loss.
The Pioneers hit .127 in the two meetings with the Eagles as Cassie Born tallied a team-high 22 kills total. Five Pioneers had double digit digs in their victory led by Melissa Mazur's 36. The junior libero is third in the league in scoops averaging 5.53 on the year.
"We look at our opponent as is," Carson-Newman coach Dave Franklin said. "Most of it is about controlling our side of the net and that's what we have done better of late especially this weekend. It gives us information about each other [from prior meetings] but I don't think those earlier matchups will play a big role once the game starts."
Seven schools have won a SAC Tournament Championship since 1990. Of those seven programs, Mars Hill and Lenoir-Rhyne are the only two that have not won multiple titles. Wingate leads the way with 12 championships followed by six from Presbyterian, three by Catawba and two each from Carson-Newman and Gardner-Webb.
C-N is 28-26 in the SAC Tournament all-time including a pair of league titles in 2000 and 2002. The Eagles have not appeared in a title game since 2009 despite winning their first game in the tournament in 14 of their last 15 trips. The lone blemish along the way was a five-set defeat to Wingate in 2011.
Carson-Newman and Tusculum have squared off three times in the SAC Volleyball Tournament, 2006 and 2007 with the Eagles winning each outing dropping one set. On Nov. 9, 2007 in Jefferson City, the Eagles earned a sweep behind 16 kills from Kelsey Fleck holding the Pioneers to a .122 attack percentage.
The 2006 meeting came at Wingate on Nov. 3 as C-N sported an efficient .324 hitting margin with three players racking up at least 10 kills. Fleck led the way with 18 kills making just one mistake to post a .654 attack percentage. Kari Gibson handed out 48 assists while recording eight kills, five digs and three service aces.
The Pioneers enter the tournament having lost six of their last seven and nine of their last 13 matches. Their lone win over the last seven came on Nov. 3 at Newberry, a sweep of the 10th-place team in the conference.
Since the start of October, Tusculum has played just four matches at home winning three. On the year, coach Michael Robinson's team is 4-10 away from home. In road matches, the school is hitting 32 points lower than home matches at .145 and has registered 1.54 blocks per set, 34 points lower than its mark at home.
Opponents have had success against a Tusculum block that ranks seventh in the SAC posting a .184 hitting percentage, the fourth-highest tally allowed. In the first month of the year, the Pioneers were averaging 1.89 rejections per set. That figure has dipped to just above 1.5 since the start of October.
Senior setter Shannon Murphy has not missed a set this year ranking fourth in the league with 10.13 assists per set. She has 20 double-doubles on the year including both against the Eagles and has 13 matches with 40 helpers or more.
"Serving and blocking are going to be big for us against a team like Tusculum," Franklin said. "If we can serve them out of system and have good handwork blocking – that's what led to success at their place. We can have those be on point then we have a really good chance."
The winner of Tuesday night's match will advance to the semifinals and get the victor of top-seeded Anderson and Coker at 4 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse as C-N is the host of the final leg of the conference championships.
Broadcast coverage will be available on cneagles.com/live starting 15 minutes before the first serve on the Eagle Sports Network with a high definition video stream available for the match.
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