JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman beach volleyball coach Kody DuBarry released the 2019 schedule that will feature two home events and five road trips for the team.
Beginning in March, the Eagles will travel to its first contest in Fort Wayne, Indiana to compete in a unique indoor facility with five courts. The next weekend the team will travel to Charleston, South Carolina where they will face stout competition in Florida Southern, Texas A&M Kingsville, Huntingdon and College of Charleston.
"We'll go there and have some tough competition," DuBarry said of the first couple weekends. "That will be a nice first two weekends to open up the season, and I'm really excited about the amount we're playing. We have a full schedule this year, so we're really excited about that."
The Eagles will then travel to some familiar territory at the Dig and Dive Invitational in Wilmington, North Carolina where they will face Coastal Carolina, Morehead State University, College of Charleston again and first year beach team Tusculum University. Finishing out March and moving into April C-N will host two events going against Tusculum and Eastern Kentucky University at the first tournament and LMU and Stevenson College at the second.
Rounding out the season the Eagles will hit the road again travelling to Austin Peay University and the Small College Championships in Tavares, Florida where they will compete against LMU yet again and Austin Peay.
DuBarry is entering his second season as the head coach of the beach volleyball team at Carson-Newman and is excited to implement what he learned from his first year.
"Being first time head coach, you learn a lot," Coach Kody DuBarry said. "The big one for me has been preparation. We wanted to maximize our time this fall, and we had some really good weather, so we got out there and cranked it."
The team is comprised of one junior in Kelly Hughes, the transfer from Missouri Baptist University, eight returning sophomores in Monty Sauter, Summer Coulter, Lauren Williams, Lexy Headley Aryana Fazelnia, Abby Struewing and Grace Seymour. Morgan Siwiec and Taryn Nichols are the two freshman that finish out the roster.
"The atmosphere is awesome," DuBarry said of the girls' attitude towards the season. "They came in and got after it in the weight room and on the sand. They had a focus and wanted to get better."
The young team is coming off a tough 2018 season as they battled in numerous close matches but couldn't close out a win. Using that as motivation, their focus is on making sure they improve every day.
"The goal is just to get better," DuBarry said. "Obviously you want to win as many matches as you possibly can, but I want the girls to go out and compete, have fun, and get better. Those are my goals for me as well as the girls."
The Eagles will begin their season the weekend of March 1st. For more information and to keep up with what's happening in the C-N athletics world take a look around cneagles.com.
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