JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – After a hard-fought opening set, Carson-Newman (21-4) took control of the match to sweep Georgia College, 32-30, 25-17, 25-11, in its final game of the South Atlantic Conference/Peach Belt Conference Crossover Saturday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse.
"We knew we had to come into today with an answer after losing to Augusta, Carson-Newman head coach Ashley Tiernan said. "It took us a few points to get into a rhythm and figure out what was going to work for us today. Thankfully we came away with that hard-fought opening set and then we controlled the next two sets."
C-N improves to 17-1 this season when winning the first set. The Eagles are now 9-1 at home this season.
Sophomore Blake Cherry had a career day for the Eagles. She recorded a season and career high 17 kills in the win. She hit at a .400 clip and added 10 digs for a double-double.
Senior Julia Wheeler also recorded double digits kills for the Eagles with 13. Similar to Cherry, she also recorded 10 digs for a double-double.
Senior Abbey Hildenbrand was the third C-N player to record a double-double in the win. She led the team with 36 assists and 12 digs.
Junior Skylor Weaver had an efficient day with seven kills on 15 attacks for a .400 hitting percentage.
Junior Emmagrace Cobb had the best attacking percentage with a .500 mark. She had nine kills on 16 attacks in C-N's win.
The opening set was a battle, as neither team wanted to concede the opening set. The Eagles had nine set points, before eventually winning the opening set off a block from junior McKenna Hall. There were 14 ties during the opening set and six lead changes.
The second and third sets were nothing like the first set, as C-N scored the first point and never let up.
In the second set, Georgia College cut the C-N lead to 20-17 but the Eagles scored five straight points to close out the second set and lead the match 2-0.
The Eagles used an 8-0 scoring run in the third set to go ahead 20-7 and put the Bobcats away.
The final two sets had zero lead changes and zero ties.
Rachel Machovec and Madeline Gilmartin each had eight kills to lead Georgia College.
C-N returns to Holt Fieldhouse on Tuesday for a home match against Mars Hill. Tuesday's match will start at 6:00 p.m.
