SAU roundup: Men’s volleyball doubles up on wins in Saturday homestand

LAURINBURG — The St. Andrews Knights men’s volleyball team had a successful home stand Saturday afternoon in front of its fans.

The Knights scored their fourth conference victory in their first matchup against the Life University Running Eagles, 3-1, with set scores of 19-25, 25-23, 25-15 and 25-18. Their second matchup against the Edward Waters Tigers, a nonconference match, saw them secure their second victory of the day, 3-2, with scores of 25-20 in the first two sets, 21-25, 24-26 and 15-9.

The Knights’ record improved to 18-8 and 5-4 in Appalachian Athletic Conference play with the victories.

Their next matchup will be at home on Tuesday against Carolina University at 7 p.m.

Match 1

St. Andrews’ Hazem Nabil rebounded after a challenging showing Friday afternoon against Reinhardt, recording a team-high 17 kills, and Hugo Gonzalez-Guterriez and Kenton Bedford each contributed seven kills. Bedford executed his seven kills in nine attempts, rendering his kill percentage for the match an impressive .778. Deonte Brewer also added four kills to bolster St. Andrews’ momentum. And Dakota Hotaling continued the solid play he has shown all season, clocking a solid 27 assists in setting up his St. Andrews teammates to execute points. St. Andrews’ Leonardo Cirqueira gave a tremendous effort on defense, recording 10 digs, while Nabil also chipped in six digs.

Life University dropped to 14-7 with a 5-3 AAC record after the loss and defeating Edward Waters afterward on Harris Court.

Match 2

The Knights came out on top after a hard-fought five sets against the Edward Waters Tigers to secure their second win of the day.

Hugo Gonzalez-Gutierrez led the way on offense for St. Andrews, logging 14 kills, followed by Ariel Fokoua with eight kills and Alex Vasquez-Sanchez with seven kills; Vasquez-Sanchez executed his seven kills in nine attempts, giving him a .778 kill percentage for the match.

The Knights continued to run their offense through the school’s career-assists record holder, Hotaling, who tallied 34 assists for the contention; Kendrick Marquez supported his efforts with 17 assists; Leonardo Cirqueira again finished with a double-digit dig total with 10, while Hotaling also showed his capabilities on defense, contributing eight digs.

Edward Waters fell to 6-11 overall following the loss against St. Andrews and a defeat against Life University in the preceding match.

Softball falls in back-to-back AAC home twin bills

The St. Andrews Knights softball team lost both games of a pair of home twin bills over the weekend against the Reinhardt Eagles and the Kentucky Christian Knights.

On Saturday, St. Andrews (6-24, 1-9 Appalachian Athletic Conference) lost 10-1 in game one against Reinhardt (16-4, 6-0 AAC) and 8-0 in game two. In game one of Sunday’s matchups against Kentucky Christian (9-15, 7-7 AAC) , St. Andrews fell 6-1 in game one and 6-4 in game two.

Stats for both games against Reinhardt and game two against Kentucky Christian were unavailable as of Monday afternoon.

In Sunday’s game one, Kentucky Christian scored one run in the first inning, four in the second and its last in the seventh; St. Andrews’ one run was scored in the fifth.

Kentucky Christian’s Kaytlin Leyvas had three runs, two hits and one RBI; Sarah Leyba scored one run on one hit; Savannah Watson and Emma Fromm scored one run each; Jaryn Holtsclaw had two hits with two RBIs and Kylie Mathes had one RBI. Ashton Blackburn (1-0) earned the win, allowing five hits with five strikeouts and three walks across four scoreless innings.

Charlee Mullins scored one run on two hits for St. Andrews; Natalee Victores had two hits and Taylor Maynard had one RBI. Meghan Fritz (0-1) was the losing pitcher.

St. Andrews visits Milligan on Friday for a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is at 2 p.m.