ROCK HILL, S.C. – After posting big numbers in their first seasons at Mossy Creek, Julia Wheeler, a second-team pick, and Blake Cherry, an all-freshman team selection, earned postseason honors from the South Atlantic Conference announced on Wednesday.
Carson-Newman places multiple players on the top teams in the same year for a fifth consecutive season and 17th time in the 33 years as a program. The Eagles are one of three teams in the league with a player on the top two teams and the rookie squad joining Queens and Mars Hill.
Wheeler has put together one of the best seasons by an outside hitter in school history ranking ninth in the country with 433 total kills, one off of the top 10 for a single year in C-N history, sitting in third in the league with 3.46 kills per set. For the year, the Murfreesboro, Tenn. native has posted 23 matches with at least 10 smashes including six with 20 or more. She has led the team in kills 21 times.
The two-time SAC Offensive Player of the Week has put her name in the record books with eye-popping performances. In a five-set loss at Union on Sept. 18, the Murfreesboro, Tenn. native finished with 25 kills hitting .240 adding 13 digs. It was the third time in the last decade that an Eagle produced 25-plus smashes and first since Molly Locke on Nov. 20, 2015 had 25 against Anderson, a span of 153 matches and 2,153 days prior.
Wheeler produced 27 kills on a .219 clip with 15 digs and two block assists on Oct. 12 against Mars Hill. The outside hitter reset her career high joining Molly Locke as the only players with two, 25-kill nights in the same season. The Murfreesboro, Tenn. native tied Locke for the second-most kills in a match since 2004 as Locke also had 27 against Quincy on Sept. 4. Carly Mozgai holds the program record for kills in a match with 29 in five sets on Nov. 12, 2010 against Catawba.
After crushing 26 balls on a .333 margin at Newberry in the next match, she finished with 23 blasts on a .367 percentage in a win at regular-season champion Anderson on Oct. 16 to become the first player in recorded history (since 2004) to achieve that mark. There had only been two occasions with back-to-back nights of 20 smashes with Kelli Sorensen producing 20 each against Wingate and Catawba on Oct. 8-9, 2004 and Rachel Harper having 21 apiece against Catawba and Queens on Oct. 4-5, 2013.
For the year, the outside hitter has recorded 14 double-doubles tacking on 2.75 digs per set and 34 aces. With 1,309 attacks, a mark that is fifth on the program's single-season list, she is in the top 10 nationally in swings leading the Eagles in the area 26 times including in each of the final 15 matches of the year.
In her first year of collegiate volleyball, Cherry displayed versatility as a six-rotation outside hitter. The Cookeville, Tenn. native is the 10th player in Mossy History lineage to be named an all-freshman selection joining Hayden Barton (Hixson, Tenn.) from last season as the active players on the roster to earn the award. Four of the first nine have later became a first- or second-team All-SAC pick so far.
Cherry has stuffed the stat sheet this year with 1.72 kills per set, 3.21 digs per set, 29 service aces and 26 total blocks. The outside hitter has registered seven double-digit kills matches producing a season-high 11 in the second match of her career on a .346 hitting percentage at USC Aiken on Sept. 3. It is one of three occasions where she put down 11 balls.
The rookie's greatest asset has proved to be her defense with 19 efforts of double-digit digs including 14 of the last 17 leading the team in the area in four contests. Cherry logged a career-high 25 digs against Mars Hill on Oct. 12, one of the three times she crested 20 scoops in a match. With six double-doubles on the year, she ranked third on the roster producing the first of her career with 10 kills and 14 digs against Converse on Sept. 4.
With 379 total digs for the year, Cherry is ninth in the league in the category as one of three Eagles to rank inside of the top 15. Her 762 total attacks places her inside of the top 10 joining Lenoir-Rhyne's Taylor Prall as the only two players in the conference to rank in the top 10 in the league in both areas. The 379 digs are the most by a Carson-Newman true freshman since Taylor Lowe, who is third on the program's career list, racked up 473 as a rookie in 2013.
The Eagles await the official NCAA selection show scheduled to air Monday night, Nov. 22, at 7:30 p.m. on ncaa.com where the 64 teams from Division II will be announced for the 2021 NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball Championships.
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