VIDEO: Megan Oldenburger Interviews Elena Vasquez
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman's offense regained its groove Saturday evening at Holt Fieldhouse in South Atlantic Conference play taking down Catawba 25-11, 25-16 and 25-22 behind a .361 team attack percentage.
"Erin Edwards is really stepping up out there," Elena Vasquez said. "Our setters are really starting to locate the ball. We started to get our middles in there. It's really nice to be seeing a nice deviation of all of the different hitters out there. I think we were just hungry for a win. We had such a long night last night that we were ready to get in and get out as fast as we could."
In the 68th all-time meeting, Carson-Newman (8-5, 6-4) continues its recent stretch of dominance winning for the 11th time in the last 13 outings against Catawba (3-7, 2-7) and the seventh time in sweep fashion during that stretch.
Erin Edwards (Midlothian, Va.) and Joy Rhodes (Youngsville, N.C.) paced the Eagles offensively with 10 kills apiece hitting .474 and .350 respectively. Edwards chipped in three total blocks.
Taylor Rohr (Windsor, Colo.) led all players with 21 assists adding four digs and two aces. Madison Rademacher (Broomfield, Colo.) notched 12 assists and Morgan Ballard (Weaverville, N.C.) posted 10 digs.
Marnie Streeter (Goldvein, Va.) registered eight kills and eight digs with Kendall Cooley (Castle Rock, Colo.) hit .545 with six smashes.
The numbers for coach Dave Franklin's tallied 39 total blasts with a .361 attack percentage adding 38 digs, eight blocks and seven service aces.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) October 6, 2019
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2⃣1⃣ assists for @trohr14
3⃣ blocks for @erinedwards31
1⃣ WIN for @CarsonNewmanVB pic.twitter.com/crHGS1KJsv
The Eagles came out of the gates rolling winning each of the first four and seven of the first eight. A 6-0 burst stretched the margin to 15-4 as the lead swelled to 15 at 23-8 before the Streeter polished off the game with a kill down the near left sideline.
For the second straight stanza, the Eagles posted a hitting clip better than .400 running away early thanks to a 9-3 start. Catawba showed signs of life scoring three unanswered to close the gap to 13-9 before C-N ripped off five of six to regain control cruising to a 2-0 edge in the match.
For the first and only time all day, the home side was trailing on the first point of the third as the two sides were tied four times through the first dozen rallies. A 7-2 sequence provided the Eagles with a 14-8 margin. The Indians refused to go away getting within one behind a 3-0 surge to cut the deficit to 23-22. After a timeout, C-N won the next two ending the day on one of Catawba's 20 attack errors.
Catawba finished the day with 28 kills hitting .084 as a team with 30 digs, three blocks and one service ace. Jade Brooks led the team with nine kills but made five errors. Morgan Hester dished out 19 assists and had eight digs to lead the team.
The Eagles get a week of rest before a massive regional weekend inside of Holt Fieldhouse hosting four Peach Belt schools looking to build the resume for the postseason. The first match is Georgia College on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. All four affairs will air on cneagles.com/live by the Eagle Sports Network.
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