HARROGATE, Tenn. – Erica Whiteaker became the first player in the history of the Lincoln Memorial women's volleyball program to reach the 2,000-career dig mark as the Lady Railsplitters defeated Carson-Newman in four sets on Tuesday night at Mary Mars Gymnasium. 
 
Lincoln Memorial (10-6, 6-4 SAC) faltered in the opening set but bounced back to win the next three frames and improve to 9-1 on its home court this season. The Lady Railsplitters also moved to 11-5 over their last 16 matches against the rivals Eagles (9-8, 5-5 SAC) with the 17-25, 25-19, 25-22, 25-16 triumph. 
 
"I was impressed with how resilient we were," LMU head coach Jenny Michael said. "We were able to clear the first set, come back and respond. It's tough. Every night in conference and especially in a rivalry match. 
 
"We knew that they weren't going to roll over. Even if we had a little momentum, they were going to continue to fight. They fought through it and our girls responded, which was really nice to see. When you get pushed, are you going to fall down or are you going to push back? Tonight, when we got pushed, we pushed back."
 
Three different LMU players accounted for more kills than any single player for the Eagles, who were out-hit 53-40 in the match. Lindsey Nartker led all players with 15 kills, while Rylee Storms posted a double-double with 13 kills, 12 digs and three blocks. Emma Flowers added 13 kills as well, while Alicia Kessler had seven. Emily Walter recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 41 assists and 14 digs. 
 
Whiteaker – a senior libero who established the program's career record for digs earlier this season – led all players with 24 digs to go along with seven assists and four aces. On her 20th dig of the night, the Kingston Springs, Tenn., native reached the 2,000-career dig threshold, becoming the first player in program history to accomplish that feat.  
 
"When we were recruiting Erica, we were extremely grateful and thankful that she chose us to continue her education," Michael said. "She's just going to do so many great things. For as much as she has accomplished on the court, we are really excited to see what she's going to do when she graduates because she's just such an intelligent lady. She's going to do great things in the real world."
 
Megan Oldenburger paced Carson-Newman with 12 kills to go with 14 digs, while Marnie Streeter had 10 kills and 19 digs. Kendall Cooley chipped in seven kills on a team-high .261 attack percentage. Elena Vasquez (18) and Taylor Rohr (15) combined for 33 digs, while Morgan Ballard picked up a team-high 23 digs.  
 
The Lady Railsplitters made errors on six of their first 14 swings and fell behind 11-2 early in the opening set. Lincoln Memorial rebounded from that sluggish start and steadily chipped away at the deficit, but was never able to cut it to less than four points. An ace from Whiteaker trimmed the Eagles' lead to 15-11, but the visitors responded with a pair of blocks and a kill from Streeter, who eventually finished off C-N's 25-17 win with another kill. The Eagles hit an efficient .357 in the set compared to a .029 mark for the Lady Railsplitters.
 
Lincoln Memorial returned the favor and drew back level in the match in set two, leading wire-to-wire in a 25-19 victory. An ace from Kessler pushed the Lady Railsplitters in front 10-4 and they later maintained a six-point edge at 13-7 on back-to-back Eagle errors. Carson-Newman cut the deficit to three on four separate occasions down the closing stretch, including 22-19 late. However, back-to-back aces from Sarah Jones locked up the match-tying set. 

The Eagles were in control of the third set early and pulled ahead 11-7 on an LMU attack error. However, the Lady Railsplitters scored five unanswered points over the next passage of play to take the lead. The set was tied at 13-13 until Lincoln Memorial went on a 6-2 run to take a 19-15 lead. Carson-Newman again answered, pulling back in front 21-20 on an Oldenburger ace. But LMU made the final run, scoring on five of the final six rallies to win the set 25-22. Back-to-back kills by Storms ended the back-and-forth set that featured eight ties and five lead changes. 
 
Three consecutive kills from Nartker gave the Lady Railsplitters a 13-9 lead in set four. Lincoln Memorial never relinquished that lead, but the Eagles made things interesting with a 5-1 run that trimmed the deficit to 17-16. However, the Lady Railsplitters ended the set and the match on an 8-0 run that was powered by three kills from Storms. LMU had its most efficient set of the night, hitting .250 while limiting the Eagles to a .125 clip. 
 
The win gets Lincoln Memorial to the exact midway point of the South Atlantic Conference schedule with a 6-4 league record. Though the Lady Railsplitters are alone in fourth place in the standings, Michael hopes to see more consistency during the second half of the season.   
 
"There's nights when things are clicking and it's looking good and then there's other nights when we just can't get anything going," she said. "I'd really like to see us find a way to be more consistent." 
 
Lincoln Memorial is back in action on Friday with a trip to Charlotte, N.C. to face the Queens Royals at 7 p.m.