VIDEO: Ashley Tiernan Interview
VIDEO: Hayden Barton Interview
WINGATE, N.C. – Seeing an improvement of nine ways from last season, third-seeded Carson-Newman, a team that has responded to each loss this season with a sweep, ignites its 2022 NCAA Volleyball Championships on Friday at noon inside of Cuddy Arena against sixth-seeded Flagler, the champions of the Peach Belt.
"The core of who is on our floor right now is the same core that we had last year," Carson-Newman coach Ashley Tiernan said. "A big phrase that we have used the past year, year and a half was 'trust the process'. We train a very specific way and if you aren't used to the way that we train, it's going to be really hard to buy into our system. The athletes we have hung onto everything we did in the spring and dove into the way that we train. This fall, they put it all together and it was beautiful."
Overall, C-N is 9-8 in the national playoffs. After losing five of its first eight NCAA Tournament matches, the Eagles are 6-3 in the dance since 2015 including a 6-1 mark against teams from the Southeast Region with the lone loss coming in St. Augustine, Fla. versus second-seeded Wingate in 2017, a five-set match.
In five of the last six journeys to the NCAA Playoffs, Carson-Newman has won at least one match including region titles in 2015 and 2019 defeating Armstrong State, Erskine and Lenoir-Rhyne en route to the National Quarterfinals in 2015 and Anderson, Flagler and Augusta in 2019 as the No. 3 seed.
Carson-Newman is playing in a regional at Wingate for the sixth time in program history doing so in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2019. The Eagles have been to at least the regional semifinals in each of the last three journeys winning the region at Cuddy Arena in 2019. All told, the Bulldogs are hosting for the ninth time in the last 14 years.
The Eagles meet Flagler for the fourth time overall trailing 2-1 and third time in the NCAA Tournament. In a second-round tilt in 2010, the second-seed Saints collected a sweep over the sixth-seeded Eagles. During C-N's region championship run in 2019, the third-seeded Eagles toppled seventh-seeded Flagler in the regional semifinal in four sets. All three matches have been played in the Tar Heel State with a 2009 meeting in Banner Elk, N.C.
In 2019, there was 31 ties and 16 lead changes in the four frames as the Orange and Blue recorded 60 kills and three players finish in double figures led by 17 from Megan Oldenburger. Morgan Ballard racked up 28 digs and Elena Vasquez and Taylor Rohr posted 26 and 20 assists respectively.
The Saints won their seventh Peach Belt Tournament and first since 2017 holding off USC Aiken in a five-set thriller on Saturday. Jordan Berglin was named the MVP of the tournament posting 12 kills and 11 digs in the final and 42 total. She was fourth in the Peach Belt with 3.02 kills per set and has been in double figures in nine of her last 11.
This is the 11th time Flagler has reached the NCAA Tournament winning the region title in 2009, 2011 and 2017 advancing to the National Semifinals in 2009 before bowing out to West Texas A&M, the only Southeast team to win a match in National Quarterfinals. The Saints are 8-6 against SAC teams in the postseason and have won at least one tournament match seven times.
Coach Skylar Lopas got off to a rocky start to his tenure watching the team go 5-6 to start the year after he spent three years as an assistant at Florida. However, the team has won 13 of 16 matches since Sept. 17. The Saints come in ranked 39th nationally with 2.21 blocks per set and 41st in opponent hitting percentage at .149. There have been a dozen efforts in double digits overall in blocks and four more with nine.
Kennedy Muff, the Peach Belt's Setter of the Year for the third time in her career, and Logan Garcia are the only two players on either side of the net to play in the 2019 matchup. Muff handed out 37 assists with 13 digs and three aces and Garcia finished with five kills and four block assists.
Friday's match will be available on YouTube courtesy of Wingate with stats available here. Follow along to @CN_Eagles on Twitter and Instagram for in-game updates. Tickets for each day will be available for $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and students with an ID and $2 for children. For more information click here.
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