JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Tornados took a set from second-place Carson-Newman on the road in South Atlantic Conference action Friday night, but the Eagles came away with a 3-1 win to hand Brevard its fifth consecutive loss.
The Eagles (20-4, 15-1 SAC) hit .213 for the match and totaled 10 team blocks. The bulk of those came from Jenna Wilson, who totaled seven assisted blocks and a solo stuff and also tied Brevard's (10-13, 4-12 SAC) Fatima Gharachorloo for the match high in kills with 12. Rachel Ruble joined Gharachorloo in double digits with 11 kills and chipped in three solo blocks, while Whitney DeMoss hit .278 with eight kills to aid in the Tornados' attack.
Finding themselves down 2-0, the opportunistic Tornados stole a win despite being outhit .073-.023 in the third set. The Tornados had eight kills in the set, but earned a 25-22 win by forcing nine Carson-Newman attack errors, serving up two aces, and benefitting from six Eagle service errors.
Carson-Newman cut a tenuous Brevard lead to 16-15 on a Kristina Hill service ace, but Brevard countered with a 7-3 run sparked by an Eagles' attack error to stretch its lead to 23-18. Carson-Newman tried to rally, cutting the lead to as little as two points, before Gharachorloo ended the set with a kill on one of setter Erin Barr's 32 assists on the evening to force a fourth set.
But the Eagles had no interest in prolonging the match further, taking a lopsided 25-13 win that saw Carson-Newman score 15 of the last 20 points. The fourth set gave libero Aleksandra Vrvilo a chance to flex her defensive muscles, however, as the sophomore totaled seven digs in the set to run her total for the match to 28, her third-best effort of the season. Freshman Maggie Weiss also had a solid day defensively, reaching double digits in digs for the fourth time this season while adding a team-high three service aces.
The Tornados put themselves in position to take a first set win before Carson-Newman closed on a 4-0 run in a 25-21 victory. Brevard had trailed 21-17 before scoring four consecutive points of its own to tie the match. The second set played out in a dissimilar fashion, with Carson-Newman emphatically slamming the door after the Tornados cut the lead to three points with an 11-4 spurt to turn the set into a 25-15 runaway.
Brevard will now travel to Harrogate, Tennessee to square off with fourth-place Lincoln Memorial, which sits at 10-6 in conference play in a three-way tie with Lenoir-Rhyne and Tusculum. The match is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m.
Featured image courtesy of Neil Hayes. Click here to view more photos by Neil.
