HARROGATE, Tenn. – For the fifth straight road match, Carson-Newman brought home a victory sweeping Lincoln Memorial, 25-20, 25-14 and 25-19, Tuesday evening in South Atlantic Conference action inside of Mary Mars Gym.
"We came out tonight with a goal in mind to play all out defense both at the net and in the back row," Carson-Newman coach Ashley Tiernan said. "We found the rhythm and consistency that we needed and it paid off. We also did well spreading the ball around."
The Eagles fifth consecutive road win since an Oct. 9 setback to Wingate is the longest road winning streak since a span of a 11 in a row in 2014 when the club went undefeated in SAC road contests winning 11 straight from Sept. 19 to Nov. 4, a five-set victory over the seventh-ranked Bulldogs.
Carson-Newman (17-11, 10-5) improves to 10-1 under Tiernan when playing on Tuesdays earning its seventh sweep of that span. The triumph is also the fifth victory in a row over Lincoln Memorial (8-17, 4-11) marking the longest winning streak for the program in history over the Railsplitters passing a span of four in 1992 and 1993.
Efficiency was the name of the game as the Orange and Blue posted a .259 hitting percentage that was punctuated by 30 kills and eight misfires in the first two games. Julia Wheeler (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) led all players with 14 smashes hitting .306 adding 10 digs.
Taylor Keeran (Galion, Ohio) tallied nine blasts adding a match-high four total blocks. Blake Cherry (Cookeville, Tenn.) and Ella Gay (Johnson City, Tenn.) each piled up six kills with Cherry chipping in a team-high 13 digs.
Abbey Hildenbrand (Parker, Colo.) filled up the stats once again with 36 assists, six digs, three kills and two total rejections. Hayden Barton (Hixson, Tenn.) chipped in 11 digs and Skylor Weaver (Katy, Texas) registered a career-high five aces. The Eagles produced 10 blocks and held a 10-1 lead in service aces.
1️⃣4️⃣ @juliawheerr kills
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) November 3, 2021
1️⃣3️⃣ @blakecherry11 digs
3️⃣6️⃣ @abbeyh65 assists
4️⃣ @KeeranTaylor blocks
5️⃣ straight @CarsonNewmanVB wins over LMU pic.twitter.com/hmkxxpiSKL
C-N opened up a five-point lead on a kill by Weaver to push it out to a 12-7 margin, a bulge that it never surrendered despite the Railsplitters inching within two. Keeran put the finishing touches on the first set with a kill.
In the second stanza, the Eagles led wire-to-wire winning the first three points and racing out to a 17-5 lead thanks to an ace from Cherry to cap a 5-0 sequence. The sophomore put the Eagles in the driver's seat with a kill to polish off the game.
After a total of three ties and one lead change in the first two sets, there were seven ties and four lead changes in the third. It was level late in the game with the score tied at 19 before the Eagles reeled off the final six with Weaver on serve getting two blocks, an ace and a match-sealing kill from Gay.
Ketura Margaret was the only LMU player to finish in double figures of kills posting a dozen on the night but making nine attack errors. No other Railsplitter had more than five. Emily Walter dished out 23 assists and Sevgi Koyuncu picked up a match-high 19 digs.
The Eagles are back on the road on Saturday night at 6 p.m. at Catawba leading up to the final weekend of the SAC regular season in the penultimate road affair of the season.
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