2014 CARSON-NEWMAN VOLLEYBALL 2014 CARSON-NEWMAN POSITION BREAKDOWN OUTSIDE HITTERS SETTERS AND MIDDLES LIBEROS JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – This is the first in a three-part series that analyzes the roster for Carson-Newman volleyball heading into the 2014 campaign. This feature looks at the outside and right side hitters with senior outside hitter Lauren Santarelli (Colorado Springs, Colo.). The outside hitting position is the deepest and most experienced group despite losing current Director of Alumni Relations and Volunteer Assistant Coach Emily Schultz to graduation. Two seniors, Rachel Harper (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Santarelli, will anchor the front line. Harper was a second team All-South Atlantic Conference selection last season and has been placed on the first team preseason list this season. In 2013, she produced the fourth-highest kills per set in program history with 3.53. The outside hitter ranks in the top ten of several career statistical categories including seventh in kills per set (2.67) and tied for ninth in total kills. “Rachel Harper is a phenomenal hitter,” Santarelli said of her classmate. “I think with our little ones too we have a lot of strength. Our outsides really know how to terminate.” Santarelli bounced back from a knee injury that she suffered at the end of the 2012 season that saw her miss the first eight matches of 2013. The Colorado Springs, Colo. native was an honorable mention All-SAC performer as a sophomore. Consistency is a word that comes to mind with Santarelli. She has av-eraged around 2.5 kills per set over the two seasons 2014 Carson-Newman Volleyball Media Guide • 5 while she notched 167 digs last season. “The transition has been a little bit different,” Santarelli said of moving to the right side. “I’ve been playing outside for three years so it’s kind of differ-ent to play on the right side this year. I don’t think the transition is too difficult. On the right side, the ball has to cross over my body before I can swing.” Junior Sara Fairley (Charlotte, N.C.) returns seeking a bigger role after playing 44 sets in 2013. Kianna Sedlacek (Cardington, Ohio) is another junior who is looking for a bigger role. Sedlacek can play all six rotations and participated in 28 of the 29 matches a year ago. Ahiers and his coaching staff has been impressed with Fairley during the preseason. The Eagles bring in a pair of freshman, Rachel Cutshaw (Whitesburg, Tenn.) and Kyrie Pennington (Charlotte, N.C.), to add talent to an already strong position group. JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – This is the second in a three-part series that analyzes the roster for Carson- Newman volleyball heading into the 2014 campaign. This feature dives into the setters and middle block-ers with senior setter Kristen Pickett (Cleveland, Tenn.). Pickett is one of the most accomplished players the Eagle volleyball program has seen. The 2013 All- South Atlantic Conference honorable mention ranks second in school history with 2,680 assists and owns two of the top ten seasons in terms of assists per set that she set over the past two seasons. The senior has missed just one game in her three year career. “The biggest thing that is different is how we run our offense,” Pickett said of her role in head coach Dan Ahiers’s system. “The middles will call first what they want then the outsides and right sides adjust to what they are doing. Now it’s solely up to what I hear.” In his first recruiting class, Ahiers brought in a pair of setters with size. Freshman Morgan Harlan (Ladera Ranch, Calif.) stands at 6’2” and has been working as a middle blocker on top of her setting duties. Freshman Anna Patton (Franklin, Tenn.) is 6’ and brings a blocking presence to the setting position. The goal for the Eagles this season is to spread the wealth and not rely so heavily on first team All-SAC selection Rachel Harper who had just shy of 1,000 attack opportunities almost 300 more than the next closest last year. “I think we are focusing on spreading the offense,” Pickett said of changes made this year. “Our game as a whole has gotten so much better to where our passes aren’t 20 feet away from the net. Everybody is a killer hitter at every position we have.” Returning from the 2013 unit is junior middle blocker Kiayna O’Neal (Katy, Texas) who tallied the 205 kills and a .238 attack percentage, both third-best on team last season. O’Neal ranked in the top ten in the SAC in total blocks (77 – 9th) and solo rejections (14 – 8th). Ahiers brings in an experienced and prolific middle blocker in senior transfer from the University of California, Santa Barbara Jenna Wilson. The Rancho Cucamonga native has been a blocking extraor-dinaire in her career including lead the Fighting Gauchos in 2012 with 148 total blocks and at least five rejections on 16 occasions. “It’s really exciting,” Pickett said of the middles. “I think our connection has gotten a lot stronger on the court. It’s exciting to bring in Jenna as well. She brings a lot to the court who we haven’t had in a while.” JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Today is the final edition of a three-part series that analyzes the roster for Carson-Newman volleyball heading into the 2014 campaign. This feature looks at the back line of defense, the liberos, with junior Kristina Hill (Lake Orion, Mich.) and sophomore Taylor Lowe (Franklin, Tenn.). The liberos is the youngest collective group of play-ers in terms of in-game experience. Lowe was the main libero in 2013 as she played every set last sea-son. The sophomore finished seventh in the South Atlantic Conference with 473 total digs and eighth in the league with 4.34 digs per set. With the nerves of a first year behind her she is looking forward to added responsibilities. “Coach is really big on effort this year,” Lowe said of the liberos role. “It’s not so much confusion like last year on whose ball is whose. He is really big on going for the ball at all costs and getting it up.” Hill played in all 29 matches in 2013, one of six play-ers for Carson-Newman to do so. Last season Hill was tasked with working angles and is looking for-ward to seeing a front line filled with talent in a new offensive system. “It’s going to be a little bit easier for us,” Hill said about the idea of spreading the wealth up front. “If we dig a really hard ball and it doesn’t go straight to the setter, it’s going to be easier for Kirsten Pickett to set the outside or right side because they are a little more versatile.” Junior Lindsey Wells (Morristown, Tenn.) has moved from setter to libero where she has been working to learn a new position prior to the start of the season while sophomore Eileen Anderson (Pittstown, N.J.) rounds out the group. With the season fast approaching, the team is anx-ious to see the finished product on the court against different colored uniforms. “I think we are all excited because it is new,” Lowe said of the team’s emotions before next week’s opener. “The atmosphere is new with coach and how he runs things differently.”
Carson-Newman Volleyball Media Guide 2014
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