Sept. 8, 2007

The Carson-Newman College volleyball team defeated Kentucky State (30-19, 30-14, 30-17) and West Liberty State (30-15, 30-20, 30-13) at the Tusculum College Invitational Friday.

Carson-Newman plays Barton College and Virginia Intermont College Saturday afternoon at noon and 2 p.m. Both matches will be played at Tusculum.

All 15 Carson-Newman players contributed to the two wins tonight. "It is impossible to pick out one or two players who keyed our wins for us tonight," head coach Shannon Mincey said. "Our team played together and worked on things that needed to be improved on. Our serving was very strong. The teams didn't have an opportunity to run their offense due to our aggressive serves." The Eagles had 18 aces on the night. Haley Bush led with five against West Liberty State and Katie Troyer added another five aces against Kentucky State. "That is something we have been working on in practice so it was great see that followed through in match play. Our freshman setter Lara McDonald had an opportunity to run the offense, which was great to see her out there," added Mincey.

Four Carson-Newman players had 10 or more kills for the night. Senior Kelli Sorensen led the offense with 22, Kelsey Fleck added 13 kills while Carly Mozgai and Katie Troyer had 10 kills each. Kelli Sorensen also led in blocks for the night with 8 while freshman Nikki James added 7 blocks and Katie Troyer had 6. Eagle libero Salem Stepp led the defense with 20 digs and Haley Bush collected 10 digs. Stephanie Cutter contributed 37 assists for the matches.

Conference play opens up Wednesday with Carson-Newman hosting Lincoln Memorial at 6:30.