MATCH NOTES

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Eagles begin a two-match road trip to the Palmetto State starting Thursday night with a non-conference match against Lander.

Carson-Newman (12-5, 8-2 SAC) hits the road to take on Newberry on Tuesday night but stops in Greenwood, S.C., to take on Lander (10-3, 1-0 PBC).

Lander has battled through adversity, having had six matches postponed or cancelled due to Hurricane Helene's effects. This includes three conference matches, as the Bearcats only played one Peach Belt Conference match against Flagler last Saturday, a five-set victory.

Lander began the season 3-1 at the Redderson Invitational hosted by Lander, in which they earned a sweep of SAC opponent Tusculum. The Bearcats won three matches, all in straight sets at the Chowan Invitational, to advance to 6-1 before dropping two of three matches at the PBC/GSC Crossover event hosted by Montevallo.

Lander has hosted two non-tournament, non-conference matches before the meeting with the Eagles, sweeping Emmanuel (Ga.) and, most recently, defeating Winston-Salem State in four sets on Tuesday.

The Bearcats are coming off a 2023 season in which they earned the three-seed at the NCAA Southeast Regional Tournament, taking down Emmanuel (Ga.) before falling to Augusta in the second round.

Individually, Lander is led by junior outside hitter Katie Miller, who has collected 198 kills for 4.13 per set; no other Bearcat has more than 83 kills or a K/S of over two. The top Bearcat setter is sophomore Lauren Dow, who has 414 assists for 8.63 per set. Similar to the other side of the offense, no other Bearcat has more than 31 assists on the year.

Defensively, digs are split between three players, but sophomore Andrea Crawford tops the category with 171. Up front, Lander turns to Blondie Penaflor and Karson Browning, who have 55 and 42 blocks, respectively.

Carson-Newman leads the all-time series, 11-7, and have met in the previous eight seasons (sans 2020-21) and have alternated wins and losses in that stretch, with Lander taking last season's meeting in three sets. Thursday's match marks the first time in the series history that Lander will host back-to-back meetings.  

Carson-Newman standouts include sister Blair Cherry (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Blake Cherry (Cookeville, Tenn.). Blair tops the charts as the Eagles' top setter, placing eighth all-time in Carson-Newman career assists lists, while her older sister Blake sits less than 100 digs away from 1,000 in her career with ten matches to go in the regular season.

First-year head coach Cat Collins has turned to a trio of freshmen, including outside hitter Emerson Ahsmuhs (Placentia, Calif.) and outside-middle blocker combinations Maddie Hurst (Blaine, Tenn.) and Bella Cardello (Fountain Hills, Ariz.), who has made a larger contribution recently, making her first start this past Tuesday in a four-set win over Tusculum.

Hurst, meanwhile, found her first career double-double on Tuesday with 13 kills and 11 digs, surpassing ten digs in a match for the first time this season.

The match will take place Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. from Horne Arena in Greenwood, S.C. Those not making the trip to Greenwood can watch the match for free on the Peach Belt Conference Sports Network, which can be found on the volleyball schedule tab on cneagles.com. You can also follow the match for free by following @CN_Eagles on X.

To keep up with Carson-Newman volleyball, follow us on X, Instagram @CN_Eagles, or Facebook by following Carson-Newman Athletics.