October 13, 2025

Well rested Eagles set to host Tusculum on Tuesday evening

After a week hiatus, Carson-Newman volleyball is back in their home gymnasium as they begin the most important stretch of the season for SAC tournament seeding and regional standing.

Tusculum

7-8,5-4 SAC

Carson-Newman

14-3,5-3 SAC

Final	1	2	3	T
Tusculum 7-8,5-4 SAC	11	18	13	0
Carson-Newman 14-3,5-3 SAC	25	25	25	3

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - After a week hiatus, Carson-Newman volleyball is back in their home gymnasium as they begin the most important stretch of the season for SAC tournament seeding and regional standing.

The last time C-N saw the floor was Tuesday, October 6th when they beat the LMU Railsplitters in four sets, while the last game in their home gym was back on September 30th. They currently sit 13-3 overall and 4-3 in SAC play, good for 5th in the standings.

The last win over LMU is Carson-Newman's fourth victory in four-set play this year and the first time they have followed a loss with anything but a three-set sweep. The Eagles showed resilience, being down in each of the first three sets.Four players for C-N's attack were in double-digit kills. Emerson Ahsmuhs was the leader on the floor with 17 kills to go along with 16 digs and two blocks. This is the sophomore's double-double of the season. Raychel Ehlers (12), Annie Dziczkowski (11), and Maddie Hurst (10) were the other Eagles to help the team combine for their highest kills performance since September 16th at Lee. Blair Cherry joined Ahsmuhs in the double-double club this evening with 46 assists and 13 digs. This is her 34th double-double of her career. The junior is now less than 300 assists away from moving into the top 5 all-time at Carson-Newman in career assists.

Trinity Hafey was the defensive leader. With 17 digs to couple with a service ace, Hafey landed her highest dig total in nearly a month since she dug out 18 against North Greenville on September 13th. As a team, the Eagles grabbed their highest dig total since September 13th with 67 digs, and contained LMU to a .176 hitting percentage. "I think mainly just we keep talking about chemistry and making sure that all the interactions we have and all of our responses are adding back to our chemistry," said Collins. With this win, Carson-Newman snaps a nine-game home winning streak LMU had been building, and picks up its first win against the Railsplitters since 2023.

The Pioneers have steadily built momentum after their loss to Carson-Newman on September 23rd. While Tusculum didn't have a huge amount of success in the early goings of the season sitting 3-6 going into the last match, they have picked up the pace, grabbing four straight wins over SAC oppoenents. The Pioneers are 5-3 in the SAC, having lost early in the season to Lincoln Memorial, but they picked up their first conference win in five sets against Emory & Henry and have beaten UVA Wise, Coker, Mars Hill, and Catwaba coming into this one.

The Pioneers don't rank higher than 8th in any statistical category in the SAC. The one category that has been a relative bright spot for Tusculum this season is their blocking ability, sitting 8th in the league with 85.0 total blocks and 9th in blocks per set (1.60). TU's back row defense has struggled, though. The Pioneers are second-to-last in the conference in digs per set with 14.45. In comparison with Carson-Newman, the Eagles are averaging three more digs per set than Tusculum.

Four Pioneers are averaging above two kills a set; Grace VanZwieten has led the way with 2.61 kills per set, while Breana Pelbath follows with 2.21, and Mackenzie Land and Jaida Alvin follow closely with 2.20 and 2.11, respectively. Victoria Church is 5th among SAC competitors in assists per set with 7.11 a set while Taylor Sanders leads the back row with 2.96 digs per set. Six pioneers are averaging over 0.4 blocks per set.

Tusculum was projected 7th in the SAC preseason poll and currently sits 4th in the SAC standings

The matchup between Carson-Newman and Tusculum dates back to at least the 1992 season, when Tusculum won the first all-time matchup in two sets. Since then, it's been an incredibly back-and-forth series. The Pioneers and Eagles nearly traded wins and losses from 1992 to the mid-2000s when Carson-Newman began to pull ahead. Despite the recent success for Carson-Newman, the Eagles just narrowly hold the edge in the series 37-34.

As previously mentioned, though, it's been Carson-Newman domination recently. The Eagles have won seven of the last ten matches. What's more, C-N has won six of the last seven. The last time Tusculum beat the Eagles was back in 2023 when they swept the Eagles in Greenville. Carson-Newman hasn't lost to the Pioneers at home since the 2021 season, when they fell in five sets. Carson-Newman is 12-11 against Tusculum at home dating back to 2002.

This has been a close series for either side, though. The Pioneers and Eagles have gone to five sets in seven of the last 20 matches, and 15 of the last twenty have taken more than three sets to settle. Carson-Newman is currently on a three-game winning streak against the Pioneers.

Earlier this season, the Eagles went on the road to sweep Tusculum in Pioneer Gymnasium. It was a bounce-back win for C-N, who was coming off their first loss of the year to Lenoir-Rhyne. The Eagles looked in tip-top shape, putting home 42 kills with seven team blocks and hitting .316 on the match. While no player was in double-digits in the dig category, four players on the Eagles roster recorded seven digs. The team combined for 38, and held the Pioneers to a .121 hitting percentage. Ahsmuhs notched her seventh straight game with 14 or more kills as the sophomore landed 19 of her 34 swings to hit an astounding .471 on the match. Both Smith and Hurst followed with six kills each. Cardello showed up big on the block with six on the evening for her 6th game this season with 5+ blocks. Blair Cherry led the way from the service line with two aces and dished 36 assists to average 12 a set over the match.

For the Pioneers, Grace VanZwieten led the way with nine kills while both Land and Alvin followed with seven. Taylor Sanders gave the Eagles fits on serve receive with three aces and Mary Katherine Hall led the defense with eight digs.

The Pioneers were 13-14 overall last season but held an 11-7 record in the conference. That was good enough to get them into the SAC tournament. Their draw, though, was unfortunate. They had to play Lenoir-Rhyne in the SAC quarterfinals, where they lost in three sets. Just four days before, the Pioneers had swept Lenoir-Rhyne on their senior night to end their regular season. Allison McLarty was the best hitter for the Pioneers. In her freshman season, the rookie tallied 265 kills. She was supported by graduating senior Mikayla Willey, who averaged 2.46 kills per set and racked up 231 on the season. The Pioneers also graduated their starting libero, Amiranne Au, who averaged 4.19 digs per set, and their starting setter, Madison Adkin,s who was averaging just under 9 assists per set.

The Eagles and Pioneers first serve is slated for 6:00PM at Holt Fieldhouse.