CHARLOTTE, N.C. – With two matches remaining in the regular season, Carson-Newman hits the road to take on Queens Friday night at 7 p.m. and Catawba Saturday at 6 p.m. to wrap up South Atlantic Conference play.
The top four slots for next week's SAC Tournament have been determined with the Eagles set to host a quarterfinal match Tuesday evening from Holt Fieldhouse. Carson-Newman (21-6, 15-5) can either be the three or the four seed. In order to rise to the third seed, the Eagles need to beat Queens (20-5, 17-3) and have the Royals to Lincoln Memorial on Saturday. That scenario assumes that Anderson does not falter twice including a road trip to winless UVa-Wise.
Friday night's affair features two teams with winning streaks of six for C-N and five for Queens. The Royals have won six of the last eight meetings between the two sides tying the all-time series at eight. The Eagles have lost three straight trips to Charlotte since a four-set win on Sept. 19, 2015.
When the teams met on Oct. 4, the Royals won the first two games only to falter in the third and fourth games. Queens blew out the Eagles 15-4 in the final set to seal a victory. Four players finished in double figures in kills led by 17 from Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.).
There were a total of 231 digs between the two sides as each team produced five players with at least 10 scoops. Neither side hit greater than .110 on the night with C-N posting 13 blocks to 10 from Queens.
Coach Hannah Long's team has won 13 of the last 15 matches with six of those victories coming in straight sets. The Royals have won eight straight home matches dating back to a sweep at the hands of Wingate on Sept. 20.
Casey Tarvin has won four of the last five SAC Player of the Week plaudits. After posting 2.94 kills per set in September, the outside hitter is notching 4.15 over her last 14 matches. She leads the conference in points per set with 4.23 on the season adding 15 double-doubles.
Queens ranks fifth in the country with 20.23 digs per set yielding a .115 opponent's hitting percentage to rank third in the conference behind Wingate and Carson-Newman and 11th in the country.
The Eagles have won five straight meetings with Catawba (7-17, 5-15) dropping a total of one set in that span. C-N has won 11 of the last 13 contests in the all-time series but still trails overall 37-31. Seven of those triumphs have been in straight stanzas.
In a sweep on Oct. 5, the Orange and Blue posted their third-highest hitting clip of the year posting a .361 mark led by 10 kills apiece from Erin Edwards (Midlothian, Va.) and Joy Rhodes (Youngsville, N.C.) who hit .474 and .350 respectively.
Despite winning two of its last three, Catawba has four total victories since the calendar flipped to October being swept five times during that sequence. The Indians have lost three straight home matches since beating UVa-Wise on Oct. 18.
Catawba ranks no better than sixth in any area statistically posting a team hitting percentage of .165 and 11.85 kills per set. Kylie Morgan posted 4.74 kills per set in September but is averaging just 2.51 in her last 13 outings despite four with at least 15 smashes.
Video and stat links will be available by following @CNathletics on Twitter for the latest news and notes for the weekend ahead for the Eagles.
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