November 13, 2025

Senior Day bout set against Newberry to iron out wrinkles in the SAC standings

The final regular season home match for the Eagles carries significant weight for the SAC standings.

Newberry

11-15,6-12 SAC

Carson-Newman

23-4,14-4 SAC

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Newberry 11-15,6-12 SAC	16	19	25	21	1
Carson-Newman 23-4,14-4 SAC	25	25	22	25	3

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The final regular season home match for the Eagles carries significant weight for the SAC standings.

The Newberry Wolves see the natives from Mossy Creek for the first time in 2025 in the final regular season match. The Wolves are currently tied for 7th in the conference with four other teams at 6-11 (11-13 overall), and are looking to secure their spot in the SAC playoffs.

Newberry returns much of their young talent from last season with four of their main starters returning to the floor in 2025 and a group of eight freshmen and two transfers for fresh faces. The Wolves also have a new member of the coaching staff joining Director of Volleyball Kiko Santos, with Jasmine Chambers on as the associate head coach.

Newberry has improved quite a bit this season. The Wolves strength this season has been their defense. With 17.08 digs per set, Newberry ranks 6th among SAC competitors and 54th nationally. The back row is held down by Hailey Clayworth, who is 11th in the SAC with 3.58 digs per set. 11 players on this Wolves squad average over a dig per set. As far as blocking goes, Newberry is 9th among league competitors with 1.62 blocks per set. Gabby Warren and Madison Watson both rank among the top 25 in the SAC in blocks per set.

As far as the Wolves attack is concerned, NC averages 11.76 and a .164 hitting percentage. Those marks are 7th and 8th in the SAC, respectively. Anna Schneider is Newberry's leader in kills per set, ranking 7th among league leaders with 3.04. Carole Ann Hussey (2.64), Evie Paalman (2.31), and Samantha Shaffer (2.10) are also major contributors to the Newberry kill. Annie Dill and Merryck Brackett have split time at setter in the six-two rotation, though Dill leads with 5.70 assists per set.

Newberry has lost two games in a row coming into their final game of the season. They nearly pulled off the reverse sweep against Catawba on Tuesday, and then dropped a four set match to USC Aiken on Wednesday. In the most recent loss, Jana Price led the Wolves with 13 kills and 14 digs, hitting .222 on 45 swings for 13 points. Carole Ann Hussey added an efficient 10 kills on .474 hitting, while Madison Watson and Anna Schneider chipped in seven kills apiece. Hailey Clayworth anchored the defense with 27 digs, and Gabi Garabedian contributed 13 digs and three aces from the service line. The Wolves also posted seven team blocks, led by Hussey, Evie Paalman, and D'Metria Jordan with one solo block each.

This will be the 55th all-time match between the Wolves and Eagles. Carson-Newman has taken care of the series, taking 44 victories and losing just 10 times. The Eagles are 20-5 at home against Newberry. The last time Newberry beat C-N was in September of 2017 where Wolves won three games in a row from 2016-2017. The last time they won in Jefferson City was in 2016. Carson-Newman has won 12 straight against the Wolves.

27 of the wins over the Wolves have been sweeps. Eight of the matches between the two teams have gone to five sets, and five of Newberry's ten wins throughout their history have come in five set battles.

It's been 388 days since the last time these two teams played each other where Carson-Newman won in four sets after losing the first. Four Eagles collected double-digit kills on the night, topped by Emerson Ahsmuhs with 14. Blair Cherry served as the top setter on the night for the 19th straight match with 52 on Tuesday evening.Defensively, Bennett McCombs led the charge with 16 digs, while Maddie Hurst complimented her 12 kills with three solo blocks for 3.5 total blocks on the night.

For the Wolves, Kate Brown led the charge with 14 kills and Emma Christensen followed with 9. Annie Dill logged the double-double with 18 assists and 10 digs and Katie Morrison led the defense with 13 digs. Madison Watson dominated the net with 7 blocks. Newberry bested the Eagles in the blocking category with eight total blocks as a team.

Last season, the Wolves were 6-12 in the SAC and tied with UVA Wise for the final spot in the SAC playoffs, but lost in the tiebreak. They wrapped up their season bottom of the conference standings in digs with 15.33 and second to last in both assists per set (9.49) and kills per set (10.27). Madison Watson was one of the bright spots for the Wolves, ranking 5th among conference opponents in blocks per set (.99). She led a Newberry block that was 8th in the SAC, recording 1.89 blocks per set. The Wolves graduated their starting libero Katy Morrison, who averaged 3.58 digs per set.

Carson-Newman will celebrate senior day with this final regular season home match. The Eagles will honor five seniors, including captain Paige Bussom, Raychel Ehlers, Bahar Kurtulus, Avery Sziksai, and Grace Ackard.

As far as SAC standings go, the tiebreakers are a tangled web with over 93 different scenarios that could play out. There is a potential for a seven way tie for the final four spots in the SAC playoffs. Wingate has secured the one seed and Anderson has secured the two seed, while C-N and L-R have both locked down quarterfinal spots. The seeding, however between the two teams remains to be seen. If L-R wins on Friday, Carson-Newman will have the four seed in the tournament, but if the Bears lose to LMU this weekend and C-N wins, Carson-Newman will take the three seed. Lucky for the Eagles, LMU should be motivated to win on Friday as one of the seven teams involved in the seven way tie for the final four spots. Newberry is in multiple convoluted tiebreaks with the other teams in the conference and needs a few chips to fall their way as well as pull out a win on Friday. To hear an ASMR reading of the potential tiebreak senarios in the SAC, you can click here.