HARROGATE, Tenn. – Looking to avoid a three-game skid, Carson-Newman hits the road for the final time in 2021 making the short trek to its northeastern state partner, Lincoln Memorial, for a 4 p.m. first serve Friday in South Atlantic Conference at Mary Mars Gym.
The Eagles have not dropped three straight matches since Oct. 19-23, 2018 losing at Wingate, at Coker and at home in five sets to Tusculum. It would be the fourth time in the last four years that the program saw a losing streak hit that length.
Megan Oldenburger (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) enters Friday needing six kills to become the 14th player in program history to record 1,000 career kills. The senior would be the fourth player to cross 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs. Jenna Rust is second in kills and fifth in digs, Kendra Rickersten is sixth and seventh while Melissa Miller ranks ninth and eight on the all-time list.
Friday's meeting between the in-state rivals will be the 52nd all-time affair with Lincoln Memorial (2-4, 2-4) leading 32-19. Carson-Newman (4-2, 4-2) is looking to run its winning streak to three matches in a row for the first time since 2014-15. The Eagles swept both meetings a year ago for the fourth time in the series.
Offensively, the Eagles dominated hitting above .300 in both affairs spreading the wealth with only one player posting double figures in kills, Marnie Streeter posting a dozen on a .400 clip in the first affair. The unit made a total of 15 attack errors in the six sets.
The most recent meeting came on Oct. 22, 2019 in Harrogate with C-N leaving the arena with a sweep behind the second double-double of the year for Taylor Rohr handing out 21 assists and picking up 10 digs. Streeter tallied 12 kills on a career-high .440 hitting percentage needing just 25 swings to do damage.
LMU produced a negative attack percentage in each of the three sets committing 27 total errors to 18 kills registering a minus-.101 clip. Lindsey Nartker led the way with six kills.
The Railsplitters have dropped three of their last four games after losing in four frames to Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday. Twice in that stretch the team has accumulated an attack percentage south of triple zeroes but has rebounded to hit .217 and .166 in the last two affairs.
Opponents have been efficient this year piling up a .193 margin, 10th in the SAC, through the first six matches of the year. If you subtract the .019 margin by Limestone, every team has hit at least .161 as three of the last four teams have hit above .200.
Three players rank in the top 17 of the league in digs per set as the team ranks 26th in the country posting 18.83 per set. Sarah Jones leads the way with 4.61 on average posting double digits in five of the six games on the year.
Gabriela Abreu is the program's top attacking option with 2.83 kills per set with three double-doubles this season. She has been on fire over the last two matches tallying 15 and a season-high 17 kills respectively in the last two hitting .196.
Lincoln Memorial will produce the broadcast by clicking here with live stats available on cneagles.com/livestats for the late afternoon first serve from Mary Mars Gym. Twitter will have in-game news and notes by following @CNathletics.
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