GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Stephanie Cutter came within a kill of recording a triple-double to lead the Carson-Newman College volleyball team to a thrilling five-set South Atlantic Conference win at Tusculum College Tuesday night at Pioneer Arena.
The Lady Eagles (14-7, 8-3 SAC) won by scores of 25-15, 22-25, 23-25, 25-13, 16-14.
Cutter finished the match with nine kills, 36 assists and 20 digs to go along with a .409 hitting percentage (9-0-22). Carly Mozgai added 16 kills and nine digs, while Jasmine Clark finished with eight kills, four blocks and a .438 hitting percentage (8-1-16) as the Lady Eagles completed the season-sweep over the Pioneers (15-11, 6-6 SAC). Jessica Schachleiter accounted for 14 kills and 17 digs for the visitors.
Leading the charge for Tusculum was senior Gina Coffaro, the reigning SAC Player of the Week. Coffaro posted 14 kills and a match-high 27 digs. Freshman Bailee Price accounted for 19 kills and 10 digs, while setter Peyton Colclough tallied 46 assists and 11 digs in the loss.
In the opening set, C-N used an 11-5 run, including three points on Schachleiter's serve en route to a 25-15 win. The Lady Eagles posted a .406 hitting percentage, while making only one attack error. Tusculum was limited to a .079 attack percentage in the first frame.
The Pioneers rebounded in the second set as the hosts never trailed. C-N's Katie Troyer tied the set at 22-22 with a kill, but Tusculum battled with three straight points, including an ace by Coffaro and a kill by rookie Sam Underwood for the 25-22 TC win.
In the third set, Tusculum got three kills by Price down the stretch including on set-point as the Pioneers won 25-23 to take a 2-1 lead.
Carson-Newman evened the match with a 25-13 fourth set win as Mozgai paced the Lady Eagles with 7-0 run to start the frame. The Lady Eagles posted a .318 hitting percentage, including four kills by Cutter.
The final set was thrilling down to the final point as the score was tied eight times, including three lead changes as neither team enjoyed a lead of more than three points. Tusculum led 6-3 early following consecutive kills by Price. But C-N answered with four straight points thanks to a pair of TC attack errors and a Pioneer ball-handling error as C-N led 7-6.
With Carson-Newman up 11-9, Tusculum posted a 3-0 spurt including kills by Coffaro, Price and Holli Cadenhead as TC regained the lead at 12-11. But C-N posted a 3-0 run of its own with kills by Nikki James and Clarke as the Lady Eagles went up 14-12.
TC fought off match-point twice with kills by Underwood and Price to tie the frame for an eighth time at 14-14. But C-N closed out the match with a kill by Clarke and the Schachleiter kill for the match-winner.
Underwood finished eight kills, 14 digs and three blocks for the Pioneers, while Melanie Gibson and Cadenhead tallied 17 and 14 digs, respectively.
Tusculum continues its three-match home-stand on Friday as the Pioneers host Lenoir-Rhyne University for a 7 p.m. match. The match has been designated as "Dig For the Cure" Night as both teams will be raising funds for Breast Cancer Research.
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