FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Highlighting a dominant road victory against Mary Washington, Christopher Newport junior
Sammy Carroll became just the eighth player in program history with 2,000 assists as she helped lead the Captains to a 3-0 win over the Eagles. CNU improved to 17-3 with a 25-16, 25-18, 25-14 win at the Anderson Center in Fredericksburg, Va.
Carroll came into the match just nine assists shy of the milestone and finished the three-set victory with 31 helpers. She eclipsed the 2,000-assist plateau on a kill by
Mackenzie Wright in the first set that gave the Captains a 20-12 lead. The second-year star ranks eighth all-time with 2,022 career assists and is the fastest to 2,000 in program history, reaching the mark in just her 56th career match. That is four matches quicker than all-time leader and CNU Athletics Hall of Famer Brittany Collins notched her 2,000th assist.
In Saturday's matchup against the Eagles, the Captains never trailed, winning each of the three sets wire-to-wire. In the first, CNU took a 6-2 lead on a block by
Maddie Carter and
Hanna Nelson to force an early timeout. After the Eagles cut it to three twice, CNU went on another 3-0 run to push it to 11-5 with an ace by
Julia Gleason. After building a cushion into the first-set lead, the Captains and Eagles traded points the rest of the way with
Maddie Carter leading the attack with four kills.
In the second set the home team kept it close until it was 12-10. From there,
Sam Senfield stepped to the service line and delivered a 4-0 run for the Captains. Wright, Nelson, and Carter each had kills in the spurt, pushing the lead to 16-10. Mary Washington responded with a 3-0 run but back-to-back aces from Carroll made it 19-13 and the Captains were poised to pull away. The lead grew to seven again and CNU captured the second set, 25-18.
Rounding out the match with a dominant performance in the third set,
Anna Dean kicked things off with a 4-0 run at the line. Carter added two more kills as CNU built the early lead. Mary Washington clawed back to tie the set at six but a Mary Washington error put the Captains ahead for good.
Kyla McIntyre punctuated another 6-0 run by Christopher Newport with a rocketed right-hand down the line for the kill. Mary Washington would get no closer than four points the rest of the way as
Rebecca Frey pinpointed a pair of aces and McIntyre added another kill late.
Carter led the Captains with 12 kills with just a pair of errors for a .303 hitting percentage.
Noelle Starr picked up 17 digs to lead the defense while
Mackenzie Wright added seven kills and five blocks for the Captains. As a team, the Captains hit .262 in the match.
Christopher Newport will return to action next weekend for a pair of matches at Juniata College. The Captains will take on Eagles this Friday, October 15 at 7:00 pm before facing Ithaca College on Saturday, October 16 at 11:00 am.
