#11 Wildcats Halt Eagles Ride Through Landmark Season

TAMPA, Fla. – 11^th-ranked Wayne State (Nebraska) eliminated Carson-Newman from the 2015 Division II women's volleyball championship in four sets 25-20, 25-22, 18-25 and 25-16 Thursday evening at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center.

Carson-Newman finishes its season 29-8 finishing with the second-most wins in program history while reaching the National Quarterfinals for the first time in the school's history.

"It was a great match," Carson-Newman coach Dan Ahiers said. "Wayne St. is a great team. They are coached incredibly well. They are well-balanced. We got a saying 'there's losing and there's getting beat'. Losing we didn't show up to play. Getting beat, sometimes your opponent is better than you are even if you didn't play your best. We played a great match tonight and it took a great team to beat us."

The Wildcats rushed out to a 6-2 lead in the first frame before a 7-2 Carson-Newman sequence gave the Eagles their first lead of the night at 9-8. With the score deadlocked at 13, Wayne St. won four straight rallies prompting a timeout. The Eagles battled back to trail by two on two occasions but a 5-2 conclusion of the set put the Wildcats ahead 1-0 in the match.

Carson-Newman hit .103 in the second stanza. A 5-0 run and a 9-2 overall run by Wayne St. put the Eagles behind 19-12. The Southeast Region champions battled all the way back to get within a 21-19 tally. Wayne St. led by two three more times in the set but a service error conceded the set to the Wildcats.

The Eagles joined Wingate as the only schools in South Atlantic Conference history to win one set in the National Quarterfinals taking the third frame. A 6-0 run by the Eagles with the score tied at seven put the Eagles ahead for good in the set. A combo block by freshman middle blocker Natalie Harris(Monroe, N.C.) and senior outside hitter Sara Fairley (Charlotte, N.C.) delayed elimination.

The two teams split the first 20 rallies of the fourth set prior to an 8-0 run for the Wildcats to make it 18-10 and put the match out of reach. The Eagles won three of four points late to stave off match points, but a service ace capped the night.

Carson-Newman totaled 45 kills on a .190 hitting percentage with 55 digs, seven blocks and seven service aces compared to 56 kills on a .232 attack percentage with 70 digs, nine blocks and four service aces for Wayne St.

Fairley led the Eagles with 18 kills while hitting .381 with five digs and three block assists. She finished the year with 424 total kills to put herself at 10^th on the program's single season kills list.

"It's definitely been a roller coaster," Fairley said of her career. "Lots of ups and downs. Having Dan come to Carson-Newman was the best thing that could have happened for our team. We improved drastically from one season to the next. This year we have just taken that and run with it. This program is going to be great in the near future."

Junior middle blocker Maddie Borch (Walnut Creek, Calif.) was the other Eagle to finish in double figures in kills with 11 and five digs. Borch ends the year with a .339 attack percentage, good for second on the single season list in that category.

Sophomore setter Anna Patton (Franklin, Tenn.) handed out 38 assists and nine digs. She finished the year with 1,430 total assists to place her third on the single season list while her 10.51 assists per set is the fifth-most in a single year.

Senior outside hitter Molly Locke (College Grove, Tenn.) had eight kills and 13 digs on the night. Her 448 total kills this year put her in a tie with Kelli Sorensen for the seventh-highest single season mark.

"I've told all of our freshman that this might not have been a national championship team right now but that's exactly where this program is heading," Locke said of the future of the program. "They have three more years to get better and better. They will keep coming here because of the legacy they're creating."

Junior libero Taylor Lowe (Franklin, Tenn.) piled up 11 digs on the night to finish the year with 558 total scoops. That number puts her 10^th on the single season list.

Wayne St. was led by 19 kills from Alyssa Frauendorfer's 19 kills on a .562 hitting percentage. Leisa McClintock finished wtih 4withsists and Courtney VanGroingen tallied 20 digs.

The Wildcats take on the winner of NYIT and Palm Beach Atlantic in the National Semifinals on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

To stay current with all of the latest Carson-Newman volleyball news through the offseason stay tuned to cneagles.com and follow @CNathletics and@CarsonNewmanVB on Twitter.