First road trip of the year sends Eagles to Greeneville
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - After opening the season 2-0 for the third straight year, the Carson-Newman beach volleyball team heads to Greeneville for the Tusculum Pioneer Tournament on Feb. 25-26.
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - After opening the season 2-0 for the third straight year, the Carson-Newman beach volleyball team heads to Greeneville for the Tusculum Pioneer Tournament on Feb. 25-26.
The Eagles will take on Divsion-I foe Eastern Kentucky on Friday, Feb. 25 at noon before heading back to Greeneville on Saturday, Feb. 26 to face the host Pioneers and Division-I foe Chattanooga. Both matches will be played back-to-back with the Pioneers and Eagles facing off at 9:00 am.
Carson-Newman opened the 2022 season this past weekend with a doubleheader sweep of Lincoln Memorial at home. The Eagles took the first match 4-1 before sweeping the Railsplitters 5-0 in the second contest. C-N did not drop a single set in the second match vs LMU, the first time that has happened since Mar. 31, 2021 when the Eagles pulled off the perfect doubleheader sweep over St. Andrews.
The road was not kind to the Eagles as the club went just 2-5 in true road games last season. Adding in neutral site contests, C-N went just 3-11 away from the banks of Mossy Creek. The Eagles defeated Erskine and Chattanooga in true road contests last season, splitting a pair of doubleheaders agianst the Mocs and Flying Fleet.
The Eagles are just 6-35 all-time against Division-I teams. The Eagles went 1-3 in contests last year, splitting with Chattanooga before being swept by #25 Coastal Carolina. As one of only two Divsion-II beach volleyball programs around when the team was established in 2015, the Eagles played a full Division-I schedule in their first year of competition.
History can be made this weekend for Mia Toribio and Lindsey Geurin. If the two complete a perfect sweep of the weekend, the two will move past Summer Coulter and Taylor Lowe for second-most wins in program history. Abby Struewing currently holds the record for career wins with 22.
C-N does hold a winning record all-time against Eastern Kentucky. The Eagles lead the series 2-1 as the teams met three times in the 2019 season. Carson-Newman swept the Colonels in Jefferson City 5-0 and 4-1 before falling to EKU in Clarksville, Tenn. later that year at the Austin Peay Tournament by a score of 4-1.
EKU is currently on a 17-match losing streak dating back to 2019. The Colonels played just four matches in 2020 before the season was cancelled due to COVID, and lost all thirteen matches in 2020. Oddly enough, EKU's last win was over Carson-Newman in their season finale at Austin Peay. EKU and Carson-Newman are also intertwined as Eastern Kentucky picked up their first win in program history against Tusculum on the Carson-Newman beach volleyball courts, knocking off the Pioneers 3-2 on Mar. 31, 2019.
This weekend will be the first competition of the season for EKU's beach volleyball program and their first match under new head coach Jeff Patton. Morehead State transfer and 2021 Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year Hannah Keating will make her debut for EKU this weekend. Keating posted a 10-1 overall record during the 2021 regular season, including an 8-1 record at the No. 1 position.
Tusculum and Carson-Newman will meet for the ninth time in their program's history this weekend. The Pioneers hold a 7-1 advantage in the overall series, as the Eagles defeated Tusculum in a shortened contest 3-1 last season in Mossy Creek. The Pioneers extracted their revenge at the 2021 AVCA Small College Championships, knocking off C-N 4-1 and eliminating the Eagles from the tournament. Tusculum also picked up a win over the Eagles at the 2021 SAC Beach Challenge event in Salisbury, N.C., winning the match 4-1.
Tusculum enters the weekend 5-0, but only one of those wins is against a Division-II opponent. Tusculum swept Lincoln Memorial at the St. Andrews tournament on Feb. 12. The Pioneers picked up a pair of sweeps over NAIA foe Truett-McConnell last week and also have sweep victories over NAIA St. Andrews and LaGrange. Tusculum went 5-6 vs D-II opponents last season, including a perfect 3-0 at the SAC Beach Challenge.
In the eight meetings, the Pioneers and Eagles have met in four different states. This is the first meeting between the two in Greeneville, Tenn. at the new Pioneer beach volleyball courts.
Chattanooga and Carson-Newman met last season in the Scenic City, with the Mocs and Eagles splitting the meeting. Chattanooga swept the Eagles 5-0 in the first match while C-N took the second match 3-2, thanks to a win by Mia Toribio and Lindsey Geurin.
In their first full season of competition in 2021, the Mocs went 8-11 falling to Jacksonville State 3-2 in the OVC Tournament. The Eagles were the Mocs first win in program history, as Chattanooga played just three matches in their first season in 2020.
For more information on the Carson-Newman beach volleyball team, fans can log on to cneagles.com or follow Carson-Newman athletics on twitter at @cn_eagles.
