Kaleb Middleton (12) hits the ball past a Carolina defender during the Knights’ season opening matchup with the Bruins on Tuesday night at Harris Court. Middleton led the team in assists with 22. 
                                 Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange

Kaleb Middleton (12) hits the ball past a Carolina defender during the Knights’ season opening matchup with the Bruins on Tuesday night at Harris Court. Middleton led the team in assists with 22.

Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange

<p>Khushpreet Sandhu (24) serves the ball during Tuesday’s matchup. Sandhu led St. Andrews in kills with 19. </p>
                                 <p>Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange</p>

Khushpreet Sandhu (24) serves the ball during Tuesday’s matchup. Sandhu led St. Andrews in kills with 19.

Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange

<p>Nicholas Scorzo (33) receives a serve. Scorzo had three digs during the contest.</p>
                                 <p>Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange</p>

Nicholas Scorzo (33) receives a serve. Scorzo had three digs during the contest.

Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange

<p>Khushpreet Sandhu (24) receives a serve. </p>
                                 <p>Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange</p>

Khushpreet Sandhu (24) receives a serve.

Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange

LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights men’s volleyball team was defeated in their 2025 season opener by the visiting Carolina University Bruins three sets to one on Tuesday night at Harris Court. The Knights fall to 0-1 (0-1 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Bruins improve to 2-2 (1-0 against conference opponents) with their second consecutive win. All four sets of the game were decided by three points or less.

Despite the tough loss, Head Coach Noah Ray was pleased with the effort his young team (with no seniors) played with on Tuesday night. Ray feels as though there was a lot of good to come out of the season opener but is also aware of improvement that is still necessary.

“I’m really happy with how we competed with the adversity,” Ray said. “They came in extremely confident, it’s hard when a conference team is your first match of the season. We’ve got to learn how to play a little more consistent and clean.”

St. Andrews came out of the gates on fire during the first set by scoring the first point and then going on a 5-0 run shortly after to quickly go up 6-2. The teams then traded punches for an extended period with the following runs occurring: Carolina 4-0, Knights 3-0, Bruins 3-0, St. Andrews 5-0 and Carolina 5-0 to make it even at 15 points apiece. St. Andrews would eventually go up 23-19 before the Bruins got three unanswered points to make it 23-22, though the Knights would get the last two points of the set to hold on for the 25-22 victory.

The second set started off as a bit of a slugfest, with neither team leading by more than one at any point until St. Andrews scored three unanswered points to turn a 6-6 tie into a 9-6 lead. The Knights would ride that momentum for a bit into a 15-11 advantage, though that wouldn’t last long as the Bruins promptly went on a 8-1 surge to move ahead of the Knights 19-16. St. Andrews battled back to get within one at 21-20 but couldn’t make up all of the ground in time as Carolina took the second set 25-22 to even the game at one set apiece.

The Knights struggled out of the gate during the third set with the Bruins scoring the first two points, three of the first four, four of the first five and six of the first eight. St. Andrews then responded in a major way with a 4-1 run to get them within one (7-6) and then scored six straight shortly after to suddenly go up 12-8. Carolina never gave up, continuing to hang around by never letting the deficit grow any bigger than that and eventually made the necessary plays to win 26-24.

St. Andrews again struggled out of the gate during the final set of the night with Carolina jumping out to a 7-4 advantage and then went up 12-5. To the Knights’ credit, they did respond and shrink the margin to three at 17-14 and would get as close to even as two points later on (22-20, 23-21 and 24-22). The early deficit was unfortunately still too much for St. Andrews to overcome as the Bruins took the final set 25-22 to close out a hard fought victory.

Ray was happy with the way the Knights continued to battle back during the fourth set. That said, Ray didn’t like the deficit to begin with, especially with how competitive conference games tend to be.

“You’re not allowed to start slow against any team in our conference, every team deserves respect because of how even we are across the board,” Ray said. “I do love the fact that they didn’t give up on the match, it’s very easy to go in and be upset over the mistakes.”

Khushpreet Sandhu led the Knights in kills with 19 and was tied for the team lead in digs with Kaleb Middleton as the pair had six apiece. Middleton also dished out a team high 22 assists. St. Andrews as a team had a better hitting percentage than the Bruins in three of the four sets and committed fewer total errors (22 for St. Andrews compared to 27 for Carolina).

One area that Ray knows needs to be cleaned up is serving the ball. St. Andrews had 24 service errors during Tuesday’s contest.

“24 service errors definitely doesn’t help us,” Ray said. “I’ll live with those service errors after a run of four or five, that’s just the reality of the men’s game but when we’re going back there and turning it loose on bad tosses those are the silly mistakes.”

St. Andrews will look to rebound on Saturday afternoon when they travel to take on another conference opponent in the Bluefield University Rams. The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.

Ray’s message to his team moving forward? Flush this game and use it as an opportunity to grow over the course of a long season.

“I’m really pleased as long as we come in to practice tomorrow with a chip on our shoulder,” Ray said. “One loss doesn’t define the season as long as they take it the right way.”