SALISBURY, N.C. – Riding its longest road winning streak since 2014 and leading 2-0 in the match, Carson-Newman fell in five frames to Catawba, 25-19, 25-17, 21-25, 17-25 and 14-16, Saturday evening at Goodman Gym in South Atlantic Conference play.
"We did well playing our game the first two sets and then felt pressure during the third," Carson-Newman coach Ashley Tiernan said. "I didn't get my team prepared enough to play against their swings so this one is on me."
The Eagles had reeled off five road wins in a road since losing at Wingate on Oct. 9, their longest mark since an 11-match run through the league in 2014. Carson-Newman (17-12, 10-6) had been on a dominating stretch against Catawba (10-12, 7-9) winning each of the last eight dropping three total sets before the loss on Saturday. It was the longest winning streak in the series for either team as the Indians win for the first time since a sweep on Nov. 5, 2016.
Entering this year, the Orange and Blue were 22-1 under Tiernan when leading 2-0 in a match and had not lost an affair since Oct. 25, 2018 against Anderson but have now let a 2-0 advantage slip away twice this year doing so against Queens on Sept. 11.
Finishing the night with 51 kills and a .167 hitting clip, the Eagles added nine blocks and 11 aces. Julia Wheeler (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) paced the unit with a dozen kills and nine digs with Taylor Keeran (Galion, Ohio) chipping in 11.
Abbey Hildenbrand (Parker, Colo.) filled up the stats again with 28 assists, 12 digs, seven kills and two aces. Taylor Rohr (Windsor, Colo.) added 16 helpers, six scoops and three aces. Blake Cherry (Cookeville, Tenn.) posted a team-high 14 digs and Hayden Barton (Hixson, Tenn.) finished with 13.
C-N clung to a 15-14 edge in the first frame before an 8-0 burst gave the club some separation coasting to an opening set victory on a blast from Wheeler forcing eight misfires by the home group compared to nine smashes.
Jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the second set, Carson-Newman never trailed using a 10-3 burst to go on top 23-15 putting the finishing touches on a 2-0 lead thanks to a kill from Hildenbrand.
After hitting .037 in the first game, the Indians never hit worse than .222 the rest of the day racking up 15 kills in the third. Catawba took the first five points and never saw the set tied pulling away to pull within a game at 2-1.
Behind 16 kills and a .351 hitting margin in the fourth, the home unit coasted in the game as Arianna Colon went a flawless 6-for-6 in kill attempts. Despite falling behind 12-10, Catawba used a 5-0 sequence to take a lead winning 15 of the final 20 points forcing two straight hitting miscues by the Eagles.
After losing the first two points of the fifth, the Eagles rattled off six of the next seven to take a 6-3 edge and maintained the margin until getting to match point at 14-11. Catawba won the next five points to complete the comeback and secure the win.
On the evening, the Tribe hit .229 with 61 kills and 11 blocks as four players finished in double figures in the kill column. Colon tied for the match high with 13 posting a .346 tally while Allison Bryant chipped in 13 with 10 digs. Ashley Johnson and Kylie Morgan each had 10 with the former posting 3.5 blocks.
Payton Medich posted a double-double with 33 assists and 12 digs, Dara Kane had 22 assists and Kary Hales tacked on a match-high 20 digs. The Indians had dropped four straight and seven of their last nine matches prior to the weekend.
Carson-Newman gets ready for the final weekend starting on Friday night at Holt Fieldhouse with a suddenly-scuffling Tusculum team that was swept twice this weekend at 7 p.m. The broadcast airs on the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live.
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