Sweep of Wasps gives volleyball sixth win in a row
Carson-Newman volleyball combined to hit above .300 and grab their 9th win in conference action.
EMORY, Va. – Carson-Newman volleyball combined to hit above .300 and grab their 9th win in conference action.
This is the 6th game in a row the Eagles have hit above .200. This moves the Eagles to 18-3 overall and 9-3 in the SAC. They are one game back of Lenoir-Rhyne for 3rd in the conference standings.
"We did great things tonight, still have things to improve for this weekend, but proud of the effort," said head coach Cat Collins following the win.
The Eagles jumped out to an early lead in set one. Despite E&H doing a good job setting up on the block, C-N tooled it well. It was Maddie Hurst who dominated in set one, with five kills to help put the Eagles up 16-9. Blair Cherry was able to spread the ball to all over the floor, helping five players grab kills in set one and grabbing 13 assists herself. A few attack errors down the stretch would allow E&H to pull back within range, but Carson-Newman picked up 20 digs in set one to hold the Wasps to a .054 hitting percentage in set one. They would pick up the opening frame victory 25-19.
Despite some great scrambles from either side, it was an exchange of points early in the second set. After being tied 6-6, Emerson Ahsmuhs stepped on the gas, tacking on 5 from the first set to take the lead 10-7. By the time it was 17-12 through the second, Hurst had already hit double digits in kills with 10, and Ahsmuhs collected her 10th to let the Eagles win the race to 20. Attacking errors from the Eagles allowed the Wasps to pull back to a 21-20 score, but Raychel Ehlers slammed the door on the set with her 7th kill of the night to allow the Eagles a 25-21 victory and go up 2-0.
C-N cleaned up the errors in set three though, with just one attack error through the first half of the set with the Eagles up 17-8. Annie Dziczkowski collected her second service ace of the night that would trigger an E&H timeout. The Wasps had a tough time finding empty space on the floor to put kills away and the Eagles couldn't miss, hitting .424 in set three. C-N dominated set three 25-11.
"We want to do a better job at bouncing back from errors and not letting them string together. We did a great job of that in the third set and we'll be working to grow that skill out more and more," said Collins.
Hurst and Ahsmuhs both collect their 6th game in a row with double-digit kills. Both attackers for the Eagles hit over .300 in the contest.
The reigning SAC defensive player of the week Trinity Hafey continued to shine for C-N, getting 13 digs on the night to lead the team. She was one of four Eagles to collect double-digit digs in the win. Cherry, Ahsmuhs, and Ehlers all collected 10 or more in the match.
Blair Cherry collected 38 assists to go along with her digs to get her 8th double-double of the season. Ahsmuhs also collected her 12th double-double of the year.
Carson-Newman volleyball will take the court again this weekend on Friday, October 31 to face #19 Wingate.





