JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – During a lengthy road stretch, Carson-Newman makes a pit stop at Mossy Creek to take on Mars Hill Tuesday night in a South Atlantic Conference contest from Holt Fieldhouse starting a 6 p.m.
Under coach Ashley Tiernan, Carson-Newman is 8-0 when playing on Tuesdays with six coming in straight stanzas. All told, the program has reeled off nine straight wins on Tuesday nights, seven sweeps, since falling in four frames at Mars Hill on Sept. 17, 2019.
In one of the oldest rivalries in program history, Tuesday's tussle is the 67th all-time meeting between Carson-Newman (9-8, 5-3) and Mars Hill (12-6, 4-5) with the Eagles holding onto a 41-25 lead. The Orange and Blue are 19-10 in home meetings with sweeps in the last two coming in 2019 since the Lions last won at Mossy Creek on Oct. 6, 2018 in straight sets.
In the spring, Mars Hill held off a late C-N charge to win in five frames taking the fifth 15-12 overshadowing a day where four Eagles finished with double-digit kills. Sarah Goddard paced the offense for the winning side with 14 kills and 19 digs while Megan Oldenburger had 14 kills and a season-high 26 digs for Carson-Newman.
After opening the year 8-1, the Lions are 4-5 since Sept. 17 and have not won back-to-back matches in that stretch. Last Tuesday, the team opened up an eight-match road swing with a four-set win over Lincoln Memorial courtesy of a season-high 53 kills.
There have been 13 occasions this year where a match has ended in a sweep including 10 wins with the first 10 affairs of the season needing the minimum amount of games. The team had a string of seven straight sweeps sandwiched around two sweep losses from Sept. 4-14.
Mars Hill leads the conference and is sixth in the country in digs per set posting 19.12 on average led by Ully Martins, who is 21st in Division II. The team has had at least 45 in every match with five matches of 75 or more. Martins is coming off of a night with a season-high 32 scoops.
Sarah Goddard and Grace Lilly are the top attacking pair in the conference with both averaging 3.22 kills per set this season, good for fourth in the SAC. Goddard has a dozen double-digit nights and eight double-doubles while being more efficient on the road to a .238 hitting percentage. Lilly also has 12 double-figure days with seven double-doubles.
The match will feature a video broadcast on cneagles.com/live as the Eagle Sports Network provides the sights and sounds from the friendly confines.
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