The Lenoir-Rhyne volleyball team dominated Carson-Newman to the tune of a 3-0 sweep to move to 11-1 in league play and keep pace with Anderson and Wingate atop the SAC standings. Emmaleigh Allen paced the Bears with 14 kills and moved over 300 kills on the season as she entered play with 290. The loss keeps Carson-Newman below .500 overall.

It was all LR all the time in the first set as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead and cruised to a 25-16 victory. The Bears had four service aces in the first frame with three coming from Sydney Karjala. The Bears would overcome a deficit to pull out the second set. Trailing 9-4 and 14-10, LR would even the match at 14. After the Eagles grabbed an 18-17 advantage, the Bears closed out the set with an 8-1 run to seal the deal 25-19.

It was Carson-Newman with a huge run in the third set as the Eagles trailed 17-9 but would rally to cut the LR advantage to 22-21. Allen would crush a kill to make it 23-21 and serve an ace to get to match point. An Aasia McNeill kill closed out the sweep. McNeill finished with seven kills and 12 digs and Kathy Peter hit .417 and had five total blocks with three being of the solo variety.

On top of her 14 kills, Allen tallied 12 digs for the double-double. Karjala had 32 assists and seven digs to go with her trio of aces. Carson-Newman was led by Julia Wheeler’s match-high 16 kills but C-N hit just .074 for the contest

Karjala’s three aces in a three-setter are the eighth-most since the start of the 2018 season and Peter’s three solo blocks are the fourth-most in the same time frame. The Bears nine total blocks rank as the ninth-most in a three-setter since 2018.

The overall matchup is knotted at 16 inside Shuford Arena between the two squads with LR capturing three straight at home in the head-to-head series. This is the 259th all-time win SAC play for LR and the Bears are now 293-180 all-time at home. This was the 35th win for head coach Nicole Barringer as the leader of the LR volleyball program.