VIDEO: Ashley Tiernan Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, TN – The Carson-Newman volleyball team swept South Atlantic Conference rival Newberry 25-14, 25-20 and 25-17 Saturday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse.
Junior outside hitter Megan Oldenburger (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) finished with a double-double, totaling 10 kills and 13 digs, both team-highs. She also posted a .231 hit percentage.
"She just came out with a big aggressiveness tonight," Carson-Newman coach Ashley Tiernan said. "She wanted it and she gave us the effort for it. Mixing up her shots was a big deal tonight."
Erin Edwards (Midlothian, Va.) finished second on the team with seven kills while Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.) and Alex Biro (Ooltewah, TN) put up six kills apiece.
"We work a lot in practice to see the open shots, to work with the sets you get," Biro said. "Our sets are always flawless. Our setters really bust their butt to give us an opportunity… It just all kind of flowed, I'm glad it was able to go my way."
The match was far from being a breeze despite the sweep as Carson-Newman (16-6, 10-5) trailed by four points early in the second set and by as many as six in the third set before rallying to take both frames.
"We definitely kept it together, kept our composure," Tiernan said. "Knew what we needed to do to come back even with the slow start and we just point-by-point went after it and gave it our all and the effort that we could."
Taylor Rohr (Windsor, Colo.) sprayed the ball around to her teammates, finishing with a game-high 14 assists, nearly matching Newberry's team total of 18. Right alongside Rohr in the category was Elena Vasquez (Riverside, Calif.) who finished with 13.
�� kills from @oldenburgermeg
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) October 26, 2019
1⃣3⃣ digs from @oldenburgermeg
1⃣4⃣ assists from @trohr14
1⃣ blocks from @alexandrab1025 @CarsonNewmanVB wins its fifth straight match over Newberry. pic.twitter.com/WngGWbpICx
Carson-Newman saw no hangover after their tough loss to Anderson on Oct. 25th which they led two sets to none before ceding a comeback to the Trojans.
"It was definitely a tough loss but we had to completely forget about it," Tiernan said. "We had a new day today and if we let it bother us or dwelled on it, we wouldn't have been able to pull out that win so we had to mentally push through and fight, find a way to work together as a family and they did just that."
Newberry (5-16, 3-13) was led on the offensive end by Toni-Anne Whitlow who finished with 5 kills. Taylor Garrison saw a productive day on both ends of the ball, piling up 7 assists and 12 digs.
The Eagles now head on a three-game road trip which starts at Lenoir-Rhyne on Oct. 29th at 7 p.m.
Be sure to keep up with Carson-Newman volleyball on C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
