SAC Tournament begins postseason play for Eagles
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman, the No. 2 seed in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament, begins postseason action with a Friday night meeting against the host institution, seventh-seeded Anderson (S.C.), at 5 p.m. at the Abney Athletic Center.
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VIDEO: Kirby Toribio Interview
Carson-Newman Volleyball Match Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman, the No. 2 seed in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament, begins postseason action with a Friday night meeting against the host institution, seventh-seeded Anderson (S.C.), at 5 p.m. at the Abney Athletic Center.
It is a rematch of one of the 2014 semifinals contests where the Trojans (11-17) topped the Eagles (25-6) in five sets to eliminate Carson-Newman from the tournament.
"We watched a video last night," Carson-Newman assistant coach Kirby Toribio said. "I think it was a year ago around this time that we got the news that we would be in the NCAA Tournament. We kept thinking about that excitement. If anything the memories from last season, where we are so excited, we remember those most of all. We do remember the loss to Anderson and we don't take that lightly, but I think we are ready for Friday."
The Eagles finished in the top-two in the league for the second straight year for the first time since both the 2008 and 2009 teams finished second. The longest streak of top-two finishes came from 2001-2003 with second-place finishes sandwiched around the Eagles lone regular season title in 2002.
Carson-Newman is 27-25 in the SAC Tournament all-time including a pair of league titles in 2000 and 2002. The Eagles have not appeared in a title game since 2009 despite winning their first game in the Tournament in 13 of the last 14 seasons. The lone blemish along the way was a five-set defeat to Wingate in 2011.
Six schools have won a SAC Tournament Championship since 1990. Of those six programs, only one, Mars Hill, has not won multiple titles. Wingate leads the way with 11 championships followed by six from Presbyterian, three by Catawba and two each from Carson-Newman and Gardner-Webb.
The Eagles lead the all-time series 10-8 and have won six of the eight sets played this season. The lone meeting between the two programs in the SAC Tournament came in the 2014 semifinals. Anderson won the fifth set 17-15 in a frame that featured nine ties and five lead changes. The score was tied at 15 after the Eagles discarded a match point, but a pair of Eagle attack errors gave the match to the Trojans.
Rachel Harper finished with her 14th double-double of the year with a season-high 18 kills and a career-high 29 digs. Kristen Pickett had her 12th double-double of the year with 52 assists and 15 digs while Jenna Wilson had 19 kills and three total blocks.
Shannon Gillespie recorded a game-high 22 kills on a .233 attack percentage to go along with 27 digs to lead the way for Anderson.
Anderson has lost eight of its last 10 matches including five losses at the Abney Athletic Center in that span. A four-set defeat to the Eagles is in that mix as the Trojans had their highest attack percentage over their last 10 matches hitting .253 on the day.
Two of the team's strong suits this year are digs and service aces. With an 18.13 digs per set clip, Anderson is 32nd nationally while ranking 58th with 1.67 service aces per frame but have just seven in its last 12 sets.
The Trojans have three All-SAC performers on their roster with Serena Jackson being a second-team pick and the duo of Priscilla Irizarry and Marissa Mitter picked as honorable mentions.
Irizarry is fifth in the league in assists per set with 9.50 and piled up 46 assists and 12 digs in the loss to the Eagles on November 7. In the first meeting on October 3, Irizarry was limited to 19 assists as Anderson hit just .060 as a team.
Jackson is fourth in the conference in attack percentage hitting .295 while Mitter ranks seventh with 3.03 kills per set on the year. The duo combined for 33 kills and an attack percentage of over .300 in the most recent meeting on November 7.
The match will have live video and stats with a link to the video here and the stats here for the quarterfinal round as the Eagles look to advance to the semifinals where they would play the winner of the No. 3 Lenoir-Rhyne and No. 6 Queens (N.C.) Saturday at 4 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 20 (at Anderson University)
Game 1: #1 Wingate vs. #8 Brevard, 12:00pm
Game 2: #4 Lincoln Memorial vs. #5 Catawba, 2:30pm
Game 3: #2 Carson-Newman vs. #7 Anderson, 5:00pm
Game 4: #3 Lenoir-Rhyne vs. #6 Queens, 7:30pm
Saturday, Nov. 21 (at Anderson University)
Game 5: winner game 1 vs. winner game 2, 1:30pm
Game 6: winner game 3 vs. winner game 4, 4:00pm
Sunday, Nov. 22 (at Anderson University)
Game 7: winner game 5 vs. winner game 6, 2:00pm
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Team Stats
Anderson (S.C.)
| Game Statistics | Anderson (S.C.) | Carson-Newman |
|---|---|---|
| Hitting % | .165 | .189 |
| Blocks | 13.0 | 16.0 |
| Digs | 106 | 99 |
| Aces | 6 | 5 |
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