Sept. 12, 2007

Stats

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.-- Carson-Newman's 13-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday night as Lincoln Memorial defeated the Lady Eagles, 3-0 (32-30, 30-25, 30-21) in C-N's first South Atlantic Conference match of the 2007 season.

The Lady Eagles (13-1, 0-1 SAC) battled back and forth in the first game. Carson-Newman led 29-28 after an Allyson Corhn service ace, but LMU's Caitlin Hankins' solo block evened the score at 29-29. A Nikki James kill gave C-N a 30-29 advantage, but LMU secured the final two game points to win the first game 32-30.

In the second game, a Kelsey Fleck kill, a Carly Mozgai service ace, and Fleck solo block reduced LMU's lead to 18-17, yet LMU responded with Amanda Baker's four kills in the final sequences to claim game two 30-25.

"LMU really played well together tonight," coach Shannon Mincey said. "We really never got into our offense. Our defense did not play as we normally play and our serve receive never really allowed us to get into an offense."

In the third game, C-N staged a late rally. With LMU leading 28-17, the Lady Eagles rattled off four straight points. Kelsey Fleck's kill and consecutive Mozgai kills reduced the lead to 28-20. A Baker attack error moved the Lady Eagles within striking distance at 28-21; however, LMU's offense secured the final two points off an Ashley Knight kill and Karlee Wyrick service ace to win game three and the match.

Mozgai led C-N with 10 kills while Stephanie Cutter produced 26 assists to lead the Lady Eagle offense. Salem Stepp's 21 digs paced the C-N defense and Fleck, James, and Mozgai had two solo blocks apiece. Mozgai also had two service aces. LMU's Amanda Horenkamp led LMU with 11 kills while Lauren Kiwacka had 30 assists to lead the Railsplitters in that category.

"We can take a lot of things from this match and learn which will hopefully allow us to play as a team again," Mincey said."We had several hitters be big for us. Carly Mozgai did a fabulous job on the front line for us and Caitlin Schelgel came off the bench to make some key plays. However, as a team, we really needed to play more unified. We will have a great few practices before Tuesday and be able to run our offense better."

Carson-Newman continues South Atlantic Conference play when they travel to Greeneville to take on Tusculum College on Tuesday, September 18 at 6:30 p.m.