Jefferson City, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman College Volleyball Team (8-5, 2-1 SAC) pushed its South Atlantic Conference win streak to two matches Tuesday evening as it defeated Tusculum College (7-7, 1-3 SAC) by a 3-1 (20-25, 25-11, 25-17, 25-22) score at home. The Lady Eagles are currently 6-1 in the friendly confines of Holt Fieldhouse.

"Tusculum and Carson-Newman always get up for each other. I think when we travel there we are going to expect them to get after us just like tonight," said Head Coach Shannon Mincey after the match. "We are thrilled with the win. Tusculum is a solid team. They have a lot of hard hitters and they move the ball well. Their setter was dynamic at transition offense."

Tusculum jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the first set and would hold on through a Carson-Newman rally that brought the score to within four points at 22-18 before going on to win the set. Bailee Price (Fort Wayne, Ind.) recorded five kills while Peyton Colclough (Manassas, Va.) dished-out 12 of her 38 assists during the set as well.

"I think we were tight and nervous with it being our first home night game with a bigger crowd," added Mincey. "We tightened up and played very tentative and thought too much to begin with. We regrouped in the second set and just played and stopped thinking."

The Lady Eagles seized the momentum of the match in the second frame as the team outhit the Pioneers by a .412 to .071 margin to equalize the match score at one apiece. C-N was effective on the rally and defensively, scoring 11 of the last 15 points of the set. Setter Stephanie Cutter (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) racked-up 15 assists in the stanza as the senior reached double figures in each of contests' four sets.

In the third set, freshman middle Jasmine Clarke (Pelham, Ala.) hit a perfect 6-for-6 as Carson-Newman leapt out to an 11-3 lead before six straight points by Tusculum drew the score to 11-9. The Lady Eagles scored two points for every one the Pioneers put on the board for the rest of the frame to take a 2-1 set lead in the match.

Tusculum and Carson-Newman battled tight in the fourth and final set of the match as neither team led by more than three points in a period that featured four ties. The Pioneers actually sported a higher hitting percentage than the Lady Eagles, but were unable to withstand the number of attacks that C-N played into their half of the court. Senior outside hitter Jessica Schachleiter (Cincinnati, Ohio) paced Carson-Newman with six kills in the set while senior middle blocker Jessica Brady (Fruitland Park, Fla.) and Clarke added four kills each.

"Towards the end of the match we started serving tougher at them and taking them out of the offense and started picking them apart, so I think that certainly helped," said Mincey.

Schachleiter and Clarke each finished the match with 15 kills, while senior middle Katie Troyer (Plain City, Ohio) added 14 kills of her own and led all players with four blocks. Schachleiter added 15 digs to complete her double-doubles for the night.

Cutter recorded an impressive 55 assists on 63 Carson-Newman kills to come up just one assist short of her career record of 56 and added 15 digs for the double-double. Freshman libero Angelle Hayes (Brentwood, Tenn.) picked up a match-high 25 digs and added two well-timed service aces also for C-N.

Price and Carly Swisher (Fort Collins, Colo.) led Tusculum offensively with 12 and 11 kills, respectively, while Swisher added 11 digs to complete the double-double.

"(Our youth) is a part of our slow starts in these last couple of conference matches, but our freshmen really stepped up tonight as the match progressed," concluded Mincey. "Angelle and Jasmine, in particular, just came alive and played well but I would say everyone stepped up and played well tonight."

"Tonight's win gives us confidence. We have a full week off, so certainly it would have been hard to mull over a loss for a whole week. It's nice to know that we got a win, but we are certainly not relaxing on just beating Tusculum. We've got a lot of great teams in our conference."

Carson-Newman will return to the court next Tuesday night when the Lady Eagles take on the Lions of Mars Hill College in the final match of this SAC homestand. First serve is set for 6:30 p.m.