LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights softball team picked up their first two wins of the 2025 season on Sunday afternoon at home against Virginia Union. St. Andrews won the first game 6-5 and the second contest 5-1, improving to 2-2 on the season in the process.
In the first game, the Knights got all of their runs in the first three innings as they scored one in the first, two in the second and three in the third. Virginia Union scored two runs in their half of the second inning and three more in the fourth. Olivia Plybon had a 3-4 batting day for St. Andrews with an RBI and run scored while Ava McPhillips also had two RBIs.
The second contest saw St. Andrews put up three runs in the bottom of the second and another two in the fourth with Virginia Union getting their lone run in the top of the fifth. Valentina Jara and Jaylin Joss split the seven innings on the mound for the Knights. Tess Ruschman and Cat Berger had two RBIs apiece.
St. Andrews will have their first conference games of the season on Friday when they travel for a doubleheader with Reinhardt. The contests are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and noon.
Basketball teams drop home contests to Truett McConnell
The Lady Knights fell to the visiting Bears in a 59-54 final from Harris Court on Saturday afternoon while the men’s team dropped their contest by a score of 87-73. The women’s team falls to 10-15 (6-12 against conference opponents) on the season with the loss while the men’s squad sits at 3-16 (2-15 in conference games) with their sixth straight loss.
The women’s team was able to win both the first and second quarters of their matchup as they outscored Truett McConnell 13-12 over the first 10 minutes and 20-14 in the second quarter. Unfortunately for the Knights, they couldn’t hold onto their lead as the Bears outscored them 33-21 during the second half of the contest. St. Andrews led by as many as 11 with 5:47 left in the third quarter.
Jamicia Davis led St. Andrews in scoring with 14 points and also grabbed five rebounds, dished out a team high four assists and had three steals. Katie Moore and Londaisha Smith had 12 and 11 points respectively to give the Knights three double digit scorers.
The men similarly had a slow start as Truett McConnell outscored them 50-28 in the first half before St. Andrews picked things up in the final 20 minutes by winning the second half 45-37. The Knights scored the first basket of the game 16 seconds into the contest and never led again. Truett McConnell led by as many as 30.
Ma’Nas Drummond paced the team in scoring with 23 points on a 10-17 shooting effort from the floor while also grabbing five rebounds, dishing out three assists and having one steal. Kwashek Breeden had a team high eight rebounds.
Both teams will be back in action on Wednesday night as the women will head on the road to face Brenau for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff. The men meanwhile will remain at home for a 6 p.m. tipoff against Johnson & Wales.
Men’s wrestling beats USC Club
The Knights team picked up a 30-23 victory over USC Club on Friday night at Harris Court. It was the final dual meet competition of the season for the team and their second win in two days as they also defeated Montreat College on Thursday night by a score of 32-31.
Results from the competition are unavailable as of this writing. St. Andrews will next head to their conference tournament on Friday, Feb. 21 at Life University. It will be a two-day event.
Beach volleyball splits Friday games
The Knights (2-1) faced off with Mobile and Georgia Highland in Cleveland, Goergia on Friday. St. Andrews lost to Mobile 5-0 but rebounded with a win over Georgia Highland by the same score.
No further stats or information is available on the games as of this writing. The team will be back in Laurinburg on Wednesday afternoon for a pair of games against Southern Virginia. The contests will start and 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Men’s volleyball swept by Bluefield
The Knights headed on the road for the first time this season on Saturday for a matchup with conference rival Bluefield. St. Andrews was swept by the Rams in three sets, falling to 0-2 (0-2 against conference opponents) on the season with the loss while Bluefield improves to 5-3 (2-0 in conference games) with their second straight win.
All three sets were decided by at least 12 points with the scores being 25-13, 25-10 and 25-13. St. Andrews had fewer kills (16-38), committed more errors (16-12) and had a worse hitting percentage in every set of the game.
Khushpreet Sandhu led the Knights in kills with 11. Kaleb Middleton dished out a team high 13 assists and also led the team in digs with four.
The Knights will look to rebound when they return home on Friday night for a matchup against another conference opponent in Truett McConnell. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.