Men’s volleyball goes 2-0 in Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The St. Andrews University men’s volleyball team won both of their non-conference NAIA matches in Michigan on Thursday rolling past Calumet College (IN) in three sets and edging host school Davenport University in four.

SAU 3, Calumet 0

St. Andrews methodically rolled past the Crimson Wave 25-18, 25-18, and 25-21 for the three-set victory. The Knights were led by junior outside hitter Robin Imar’s 16 kills on six errors to hit .313 along with eight digs.

Freshman setter Jackson Stark led with 43 assists and two kills. Freshman Jacob DeSouza registered eight kills and a block while sophomore libero Carlos Rodriguez had 10 digs and two aces.

Freshman Nate Blackwell added eight kills with four solo blocks and three assisted blocks while fellow freshman Luke Armbruster chipped in seven kills with four blocks.

SAU 3, Davenport 1

The Knights had a tougher time against Davenport falling in the first set, 25-23. St. Andrews came back to close out two tight sets 25-23 and 25-22 before closing out the fourth and final set 25-21.

Imar led the team again with an impressive 25 kills on just four errors to hit .500 while adding 13 digs for his seventh double-double of the season. It was also Imar’s seventh match with at least 20 kills, the junior now has 334 on the season.

Freshman Nate Blackwell played well recording nine kills on just two errors to hit .636. Junior Ben Twigger stepped up to hit a season-high six kills to go along with two digs and two blocks.

St. Andrews improves to 8-11 on the season while Calumet drops to 0-15 and Davenport goes to 25-8.

The Knights will next be in action when they continue their spring break road trip back to Cincinnati to face Cincinnati Christian University for the third time and Lawrence Tech for the second time today at 2 p.m.

Baseball drops games over Spring Break

MARS HILL — The St. Andrews University baseball team was unable to pull out a win during their two-game road trip over spring break falling to Mars Hill, 17-10 on Wednesday and Brevard College, 3-2 on Thursday.

Mars Hill 17, SAU 10

Mars Hill jumped out to a 6-0 lead before the Knights rallied for five runs in the third inning with the big hits from Lee Poteat’s two-run triple and Justin Williams’ two-run double to trim Mars Hill’s lead to one, 6-5.

Mars Hill kept putting the bat on the ball scoring five runs in the fourth inning to regain a double-digit lead, 11-5. The team added three additional runs in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 17-5 lead.

The Knights managed to put together a five-run rally in the final to innings trim the deficit to seven runs.

St. Andrews finished with a season-best 14 different players recording at least one hit while four drove in runs. Along with Hunter Hackney, Williams and Poteat drove in two apiece while senior shortstop Tiger Miller and outfielder Josh Wallace recorded multi-hit games.

Senior starting pitcher Mark McEntee picked up the loss falling to 0-2. McEntee threw two innings giving up six runs off four hits and six walks. The Knights three other relievers allowed 11 runs off 10 hits over the next four innings before freshman reliever Cole Tysinger and sophomore reliever Aaron Ayers tossed scoreless innings.

Brevard 3, SAU 2

St. Andrews freshman starter Davis O’Brien (2-2), threw a season-high eight innings allowing three runs off eight hits iwth two walks and five strikeouts.

The Knights struck first with a sacrifice fly in the fourth before Brevard College tied it with an RBI groundout in the bottom half. The two teams traded runs again in the sixth inning before Brevard College scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning off an RBI single that drove in a runner that reached via error.

Tiger Miller led the Knights with a two-hit game while Justin Williams drove in both St. Andrews’ runs. Miller is 16 of his last 17 games for a .403 batting average with 31 hits.

St. Andrews falls to 12-13 on the season with their fifth straight loss. The Knights were back in action at home Friday afternoon against Bluefield College (Va.).

Softball falls in back-to-back games

LAURINBURG — The St. Andrews University softball team dropped two one-run games to conference foe Truett-McConnell University (Ga.) on Wednesday.

Game One: TMU 3, SAU 2

Truett-McConnell jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning off senior starter Kori Ballard. The Lady Knights brought in freshman reliever S.K. Brown who allowed just one run until the seventh inning. Truett’s Milly Martinet hit the game-winning home run in the seventh inning to secure a 3-2 victory.

For the game, Ballard allowed two runs off seven hit and a strikeout while Brown gave up the game-winning run in the seventhto take the loss. Brown falls to 1-3 on the season with a 4.16 ERA.

Recording the only multi-hit game for the Lady Knights was junior second baseman Sam Lowder who went 3 for 4 with a run scored. Freshman shortstop Brennan Broadaway drove in two runs with an RBI double in the third to give her team a short-lived lead.

Game Two: Truett 8, SAU 7

Brennan Broadaway (4-7) started game two for the Lady Knights. The freshman pitched four innings allowing six runs off nine hits with one strikeout. Sophomore reliever Nancy Amos finished the game allowing two runs off six hits.

Truett jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the fifth inning courtesy of five runs. St. Andrews didn’t quit however, the Lady Knights rallied to score two runs in the fifth inning and four in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough.

St. Andrews was led offensively by Ashlyn Dial, who had a multi-hit game and drove in two runs.

The Lady Knights fall to 9-17 overall and 1-5 in the AAC while Truett-McConnell goes to 13-4 and 2-0 in conference.

St. Andrews will be on the road to face Montreat College on Sunday at 2 p.m.

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By Troy Baranik

SAU Sports Information Director