EMORY, Va. – Carson-Newman tied the bow on a Mountain Division Championship in the South Atlantic Conference Tuesday night at the King Center hitting .330 to sweep Emory & Henry, 25-15, 25-17 and 25-12, in the penultimate regular-season match of the year.
"We knew discipline was going to be our main challenge tonight," Carson-Newman coach Ashley Tiernan said. "I am proud of the effort we gave with our discipline. Our goal is to continue to build on that for Friday's match and get ready for the postseason."
The Eagles are now 30-0 under Tiernan when the club hits at least .250 in a contest producing its fifth match of a least a .300 hitting clip. C-N hit at least .275 in all three sets including a .464 margin the the third.
Carson-Newman (24-4, 15-2) has won back-to-back road matches after losing two straight with both coming via the sweep beating Emory & Henry (4-23, 3-14) in straight stanzas for the second time on the year.
Julia Wheeler (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) tallied a career-high .583 hitting percentage clubbing 14 kills on 24 swings without an attack miscue adding seven digs.
Abbey Hildenbrand (Parker, Colo.) added another double-double with 20 assists and 10 digs chipping in eight smashes. Blake Cherry (Cookeville, Tenn.) tacked on eight more blasts and Hayden Barton (Hixson, Tenn.) posted 14 digs.
1️⃣4️⃣ @juliawheerr kills
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) November 2, 2022
1️⃣4️⃣ @hbarton12 digs
2️⃣0️⃣ @abbeyh65 assists
1️⃣.5️⃣ @CobbEmmagrace blocks
�� @CarsonNewmanVB was pounding the ball pic.twitter.com/tOYj2KddC0
After the teams were tied at two in the first set, the Eagles rattled off five straight points and nine of the next 11 to take control of the opening game. Holding a five-point edge at 20-15, the Eagles won the final five watching Taylor Keeran (Galion, Ohio) bounce a ball off of the ground to win the set.
In the second set, the Wasps took their lone lead of the day at 1-0 and 2-1 before C-N scored three straight to take a lead. However, the home crew did not go quietly staying within striking distance until giving up six straight after being behind 19-17 falling on two straight attack errors by Julissa Hopgood.
Carson-Newman did not waste time in the third rattling off the first five points of the game continuing to pull away as the set continued tallying a third set with at least 15 blasts. A block from McKenna Hall (Bristol, Wis.) and Taylor Adams (Covington, Ga.) sealed the victory.
Carley Williams led the way for the home team with eight kills hitting .217 with a trio of players adding five. Payton Rolfsen logged a double-double with 14 assists and 12 digs.
The Eagles return to action Friday at 6 p.m. to wrap up the regular season at UVA Wise. The game can be streamed on FloSports with a subscription. Follow along on Twitter and Instagram @CN_eagles for updates throughout the match.
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