JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.- After a heart-breaking defeat on Friday evening to the hands of Tusculum College the Sailfish volleyball team rebounded nicely on Saturday with a pair of wins to exit the Carson-Newman Tournament with a solid 3-1 record. The team first knocked off the host Eagles with a 3-0 sweep then followed through with a more dominating 3-0 victory over Converse College in the tournament finale.

The 3-1 start for the No. 25-ranked (AVCA) Sailfish sets the stage for their much-anticipated home opener on Tuesday, Sept. 10th when Palm Beach Atlantic welcomes in Palm Beach County rival Lynn University for a showdown at 7 pm in the Rubin Arena.

Match One (PBA vs. Carson-Newman)

With the disappointment of their loss to TC firmly in the rear view mirror the young ‘Fish looked to knock off Carson-Newman on Saturday morning on their home floor.

Although the first two sets would see the Blue and White control the tempo as they collected 25-13 and 25-17 wins, the Eagles would not be as easily closed out in set three. In fact, it was Carson-Newman who held on to a 22-18 lead late into the third set.

From there the ‘Fish would rattle off four straight points on a pair of C-N errors as well as kills by freshman Katie Ballantyne and junior Brytney Annis to knot the score at 22-22.

Both teams would continue to battle down the stretch with each getting to set point numerous times only to have the other thwart their hopes.

Finally the Sailfish would end the long set by claiming a 30-28 win thanks to an Emma Ballantyne kill followed by a C-N attack error.

Emma Ballantyne put together her best match of the tournament versus the Eagles as the freshman middle-blocker managed 12 kills with just two hitting errors on 19 attacks (.526 hitting percentage). Sophomore Faith Rohn added in nine kills while Katie Ballantyne posted eight kills to aid the PBA attack.

Junior Becca Acevedo finished with 34 assists in the victory while Melissa Buckingham and Rohn paced the defensive efforts with 15 digs each. Acevedo and fellow setter Alex Marszalek each topped double-digits in digs with 10 and 11 digs respectively.

Overall the Sailfish limited Carson-Newman to a .110 hitting percentage while posting a solid total of .213 on their side.

Match Two (PBA vs. Converse College)

The final match of the tournament proved to be the least competitive against the Sailfish as they dominated each of their three sets against Converse College.

PBA hit .374 for the match as Emma Ballantyne was joined by sophomore Stephany Brown atop the team leaderboard with 10 kills each. The ‘Fish posted winning scores of 25-9, 25-14 and 25-13 as Converse dropped to 0-4 for the tournament.

Acevedo was once again superb from the setter position with 36 assists and five service aces while adding in eight digs. Buckingham managed 11 digs to lead the team.

Rohn once again made her presence felt as she rounded out a solid tournament by collecting nine kills followed by Annis with eight kills and Katie Ballantyne with seven kills.