SAU men’s volleyball swept at home by Reinhardt

LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights men’s volleyball team was swept at home three sets to none by conference rival Reinhardt on Saturday morning at Harris Court. St. Andrews falls to 0-3 (0-3 in conference games) on the season with the loss while the Eagles improve to 9-2 (4-0 against conference opponents) with their sixth straight victory. It was the first game for the Knights in two weeks after last Friday’s matchup with Truett McConnell was postponed.

Despite the three-set loss, Head Coach Noah Ray saw some real positives from his squad against one of the better teams in the conference. He liked the way they didn’t shy away from the competition and embraced the matchup head on.

“Reinhardt’s easily one of the top teams in the conference if not the best team,” Ray said. “I was happy with the way we went after them in the first and third set and didn’t back away from how offensive they are.”

The first set of the contest started as a seesaw battle with the two teams trading points with each other until Reinhardt scored three in a row to go up 10-8. After St. Andrews tied the game at 11, the Eagles would go on a 4-0 run that put them ahead 15-11, though the Knights continued to fight as they would even the game again at 16 and also at 18. The true turning point in the set was when Reinhardt scored five unanswered points after that to go up 23-18 and eventually win the set 25-20.

The second set was not nearly as competitive as after St. Andrews scored the first point, the Eagles responded with four in a row and eventually found themselves up 9-6. Reinhardt then scored three unanswered points as part of an 8-1 surge that quickly turned the set into a one-sided affair at 17-7. The Eagles would cruise to the finish line from there, ending the set on a 6-2 run and winning it 25-12.

Ray boiled down the issues during the second set to the Knights simply playing on their heels. With the aggressive style Reinhardt likes to play, they were able to find some mismatches against a young St. Andrews team, which Ray had to give credit to the Eagles for successfully doing.

“In the second set we just got timid and scared,” Ray said. “They were being really efficient today and did a good job of getting us out of system.”

Reinhardt continued to ride that momentum into the final set, scoring the first three points and eight of the first 11. Unlike the second set, the Knights were able to rebound from a slow start and battled back to even the score at 11 with four unanswered points. Reinhardt would eventually pull away on the strength of three unanswered points as part of a 7-2 run that made the score 23-17 before taking the set 25-20 to complete the sweep.

Even though the final set got away from the Knights late, Ray was pleased with how his group responded to a team meeting held between the second and third sets. His message during the break? You guys are better than this and have a chance to prove yourselves.

“We went back in the locker room, and I had to light a fire under them,” Ray said. “It was a lot of not being ok with what we were doing, I was candid with them to not waste the opportunity they had.”

Khushpreet Sandhu led St. Andrews in kills with eight while also adding one dig and one block. Kaleb Middleton paced the team in assists with 14 and shared the team lead in digs with Nicholas Scorzo, who had four. As a team, the Knights had fewer kills in the game (18-40) and a worse hitting percentage in each set of the contest, though they did commit fewer errors (12-17) than the Eagles.

Ray is by no means hitting the panic button just yet. With a lot of games still left in the season, there is still time to turn things around and room to grow so these tough losses can become quality wins down the road.

“Stay hungry, we can turn these losses into positive takeaways,” Ray said. “Anyone’s beatable, it’s just a matter of buying into the mentality and staying consistent.”

St. Andrews will now head to the Sunshine State next Saturday for a matchup with Webber International. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.