JEFFERSON CITY- The Carson-Newman Lady Eagles entered Tuesday night's contest with Tusculum in search of their first South Atlantic Conference win. It appeared as if they were headed in that direction, winning the first two games.
But the Pioneers rallied in the final three games to take a 3-2 (14-25, 16-25, 25-12, 25-22, 15-12) road win. Tusculum continued their fast start to the season as they improve to 9-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Carson-Newman falls to 4-4, 0-3.
Tusculum head coach Michael Robinson said he was pleased that his team rallied even though they were down 0-2 early in the match. "I fell we have a very resilient team. There is a ton of character on this team and it seems like they live for a fight. They are fighters. I can't take that away from them and I am glad they had enough fight and heart in them to come back and win against a very talented Carson-Newman team," Robinson said.
Carson-Newman was led in kills by Lauren Santarelli with 14. Carly Swisher added 13 and Ashley Ferris had 10. The defensive effort was led by Courtney Lawson's 14 digs with Rachel Bowlin right behind with 13.
Bailie Price had a monster game for the Pioneers as she recorded 24 kills. Sam Underwood had 19 kills and Kassie Voelker contributed 10. Caityln Dean had 25 digs with Underwood and Natalie Gaudreau adding 13 and 11, respectively.
Carson-Newman head coach Shannon Mincey said that while she was disappointed with the final score, she was not disappointed in her team's effort. "At one point, we had four freshmen on the court so we have a lot of youth and I am excited about the potential that these young girls have. I hate it for my two seniors (Swisher and Nikki James) that they will not be able to relive that experience again. But any time we play Tusculum, it's always intense and fun and it pushes us to be better."
The Lady Eagles dominated the first game, limiting the Pioneers to a .037 hitting percentage.
The Lady Eagles opened a 12-5 lead and kept Tusculum at bay the rest of the game to win 25-14. Another fast start, this time a 19-9 advantage, set Carson-Newman up in comfortable territory as they took the second game 23-16.
Robinson said that even though things looked bleak, he told his team to keep at it. "I told them to stay the course. I think we did a real nice job of staying composed and that is one of our mottos on the year."
The turnaround for the Pioneers started in game three. Carson-Newman was haunted by many mistakes and hit -0.86 for the game. Game three also was troublesome for C-N as junior libero Angelle Hayes bumped her head on the Holt Field House floor diving for a dig and had to come out of the contest. The Pioneers maintained the pace of the third game and won 25-11.
"When Angelle got hurt, that totally shifted our momentum," Mincey said. "Hopefully she didn't suffer a concussion but she banged her head on the floor pretty good. That changed things. Blair (Fields) came in and did her job and played hard."
Carson-Newman fell behind in the fourth game before rallying late to cut the Tusculum deficit to 24-22. But they could get no closer as the Pioneers forced the fifth and deciding game with a 25-22 victory.
The two teams, playing in front of a loud and excited crowd, did not disappoint as the fifth game remained close all the way through as two points was the biggest lead either team held for most of the final game. But Tusculum had just enough at the end to claim the 15-12 tally in game five and win the match 3-2.
