Ray

Ray

LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights men’s volleyball team is coming off of a successful 2024 season that saw them go 22-10 overall (7-5 against conference opponents) and make it to the second round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) tournament. They also have a new head coach this season in Noah Ray, who most recently served as the head coach of both the men’s and women’s volleyball programs at Marian University Wisconsin and was hired by the Knights at the end of November.

For Ray, coming to St. Andrews is something he called a “cool full circle moment” as he was part of the men’s volleyball team at Midway University during his undergraduate years and competed against the Knights during his playing days. After running two teams simultaneously at Marian, Ray is excited to be able to put all of his time and energy into one team as he attempts to set the foundation and expectations moving forward.

“Coming from being a head coach of two programs to one has been a really nice transition because I had a lot on my plate being in season eight months out of the year, so it’s been nice to focus on one program and build on what St. Andrews has achieved in the past,” Ray said. “I’m coming in very open minded and just trying to see what we can make happen this first year.”

While wins and losses are what people will ultimately see from the outside perspective, Ray views his first year on the job as something more important in the sense that he wants to establish a long-term winner in more ways than on the court results. Even though the Knights are coming off of a good season in regard to win-loss record a year ago, Ray’s biggest focus in year one is establishing good values and doing things the right way.

“It’s about setting the culture and expectation,” Ray said. “This program has had a lot of talent, but we’re continuing to build on the classroom, the weightroom, the practice gym. There’s things that are bigger than the wins and losses.”

As far as the team personnel is concerned, the roster is small in size with eight players and has a lot of newcomers with six freshmen, one sophomore (Khushpreet “KP” Sandhu) and one junior (Nick Scorzo). Sandhu and Scorzo are both guys who had smaller roles in previous years but are expected to have a bigger impact with all of the transition the team has been under prior to Ray’s arrival. Sandhu played in 36 sets last season and had 51 kills with a hitting percentage of .340 while Scorzo participated in six sets with two digs to his name.

“KP is going to be on the outside for us, really high talent and Nick will be in the libero jersey,” Ray said. “Both of those guys have been backups in the past, so I’m really excited to see both of them take a spot and run with it.”

For the newcomers, Javier Alejandro Palacio Novoa (who comes over from Columbia), Kaleb Middleton and Joseph Mayers (who stands at 6’9”) are three names Ray mentioned as ones he has high hopes for. Each of them are going to be relied on by Ray to contribute and he is optimistic they will be able to do so with the development that will naturally come as they adapt to the college game.

“Three kids who work extremely hard, for all of them their ceiling is really high,” Ray said. “It’s about developing that talent and getting consistent, I’m really excited to watch the three of them adjust to the newness.”

Even though changes have been plentiful, and a lot of work remains for Ray to build the program as he sees fit, there are still competitive expectations for a team that hasn’t had a losing season since 2021. Ray feels like his squad is good enough to make the AAC tournament in April, which requires finishing among the conference’s top seven. If they are able to do so, Ray knows that everyone has a chance against whoever they might end up matched up against.

“I definitely want to see us in the conference tournament this year, I think we have the talent to make that happen,” Ray said. “I feel like a lot of it will be if we’re healthy in April. We’re in a conference where anyone can beat anyone on any given day, once you’re in the tournament it’s anyone’s game.”

St. Andrews is set to open their 2025 season on Friday night at home against the Milligan Buffaloes. The contest is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. from Harris Court.