JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Seeded second in the division, Carson-Newman looks to take the title this season with the help of 16 returning athletes as well as five fresh faces.
With just over a week away from the first whistle, excitement is building for head coach Ashley Tiernan's squad. While the team prepares for their season opener on Sept. 1, let's take a deep dive into the 2023 volleyball roster, starting first with middle blockers.
With no new recruits to the position, six players will fight for playing time at the center of the net. Skylor Weaver, Emmagrace Cobb, Ella Gay, Jaelyn Sorensen, Grace Akard, and Taylor Keeran make up the Carson-Newman blocking force.
Native to Katy, Texas, Skylor Weaver enters her fourth year at Carson-Newman. Since stepping onto campus in 2020, she has recorded time in 211 sets with 280 kills and 140 total blocks. Last season, Weaver racked up 142 kills across 29 sets, ranking fifth in the SAC with a .359 attack percentage. She recorded a .667 day against King, scoring six on nine swings as a warmup for Nov. 18 when she notched a .629 hitting percentage, nine kills on 13 attempts. On Sept. 6 at LMU, Weaver cranked out 8 kills on 10 swings with no errors, for a .800 night. Weaver led the middle blockers and the team with her hitting percentage and rallied 178 points on the season, good for fourth highest on the team.
Picked to the South Atlantic Conference pre-season first team this year, Emmagrace Cobb has proven to be a unit on the net. Of the six blockers, she led in kills last year with 208, total blocks with 102 and solo blocks with 14, and kills per set with 1.81. The 6'2 senior finished 2022 10th in the SAC in blocks per set (0.89) and 13th in hitting percentage (.298). Cobb recorded the third most points scored on the team in 2022, behind Julia Wheeler and Blake Cherry, with 266. She was one of three players to see time in every single set of the season to secure a spot on the all-SAC third team last year. She was a main force in the SAC semifinals against Tusculum on Nov. 11 notching 11 kills and 13.5 points total to help secure the victory.
Senior Ella Gay came to Carson-Newman in 2020 from down the street in Johnson City, Tenn. She has played in 69 sets across 29 matches during her three seasons, noting 68 career kills, 49 total blocks, 14 digs and two service aces. Last season, she raked in 17 kills on 33 swings and seven errors for a .303 hitting percentage, noting the second highest on the team after Skylor Weaver. She recorded a career high against Limestone on Sept.10 with six kills on 13 attempts.
Junior Jaelyn Sorensen and Sophomore Grace Akard are the youngest middle blockers representing Carson-Newman on the roster. Sorensen saw time in two sets last season, documenting a block and a singular kill on four attempts. Akard redshirted her freshman year.
Finally, Taylor Keeran will conclude the summary of the C-N middle blocking force. The 6'0 senior saw time in 99 sets last season, recording 142 kills, 1.43 kills per set, a .191 hitting percentage. Keeran documented the second most total blocks last season with 61 total and was sixth on the team for total points scored with 175. She recorded four matches with a double-digit scoring run, posting 11 kills on 15 attempts and two errors against UVA Wise on Sept. 16 for her season record of a .600 hitting margin. Against Lenoir-Rhyne on Oct. 7 she picked up 11 kills, three solo blocks, and seven block assists to help secure the victory. It was the second time she had at least five blocks in a match and the most by a C-N player since Nikki James posted 7.5 against Mars Hill on Nov. 1, 2011.
