HICKORY, N.C. – For the first time in 2021, Carson-Newman suffered a setback falling in straight sets 20-25, 20-25 and 17-25 to Lenoir-Rhyne Friday evening at Shuford Gym despite nine kills apiece from Erin Edwards and Megan Oldenburger.
"It was a tough loss for us tonight," Carson-Newman coach Ashley Tiernan said. "We didn't show up to compete and we could never find a rhythm. We struggled getting our shots to fall and made mistakes that broke any momentum that we had."
The duo combined for 18 blast and an uncharacteristic 10 misfires. However the rest of the attackers tallied 11 smashes and 11 mistakes with no one else recording more than four kills. Carson-Newman (4-1, 4-1) was limited to a season-low .067 hitting margin.
Lenoir-Rhyne (3-3, 3-3) had dropped six straight matches to the Eagles prior to Friday evening's affair securing its first win over the Orange and Blue since a three-set win at Holt Fieldhouse on Sept. 22, 2017. During that six-game stretch, the Eagles had won 18 of the 23 games.
Hayden Barton (Hixson, Tenn.) paced the backline with 18 digs. Taylor Rohr (Windsor, Colo.) and Madison Rademacher (Broomfield, Colo.) posted 14 and 10 assists respectively.
The Eagles raced out to a 4-0 edge and continued to lead until the scored was knotted at 14. Lenoir-Rhyne used an 8-0 surge to go on top 22-14 on block. C-N chipped away pulling within four by a kill from Taylor Prall put the Bears ahead 1-0.
There were nine ties in the early going of the second stanza before the Bears began to pull away after the score was deadlocked at 11 going on top 16-13. Three straight points by the visitors tied the tally at 16 before the home club won nine of the final 13 capping the contest on a kill by Hayley Stull.
It was nearly the same tale in the third with eight ties and five lead changes. C-N led 10-9 but gave up nine of the next 10 rallies to fall into a seven-point hole at 18-11 on an ace by Ashley Hawkins. The Eagles could only pull within six seeing the match go the Bears on a smash by Taylor Walton.
Prall was the only player in double figures offensively finishing with 18 kills on a .289 attack percentage as she became the 10th player in LR history to register 1,000 career smashes. She tacked on 10 digs for her third double-double of the year.
Four Bears finished with double-digit scoops led by 21 from Rachel Bewick with Mackenzie Hulsey tacking on 21 assists. Hawkins filled up the stat sheet with six kills, 11 digs and three service aces.
Carson-Newman entered the match ranked fifth in the country in opponents attack percentage yielding a .081 clip but the Bears piled up an efficient .242 margin closing out the match with a .333 clip. The Eagles were averaging nearly two blocks per set but were limited to a total of three in the outing.
The Eagles are back in action on Saturday traveling to Mars Hill for a 2 p.m. first serve against the Lions. Click here to follow along to live action with all of the latest updates available on @CNathletics on Twitter.
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