SPARTANBURG, S.C. —The St. Andrews Knights beach volleyball team headed to the SMC Invitational over Friday and Saturday for games against Spartanburg Methodist and Truett McConnell (Friday) as well as Brenau (Saturday). The Knights won two of three games, beating Spartanburg Methodist 3-2 and Brenau 4-1 but losing to Truett McConnell 4-1. St. Andrews’ season record moves to 13-16 (3-1 in conference games) with the results from the weekend.
In the team’s matchup against Spartanburg Methodist, their first win came from the No. 1 doubles pair of Kyra Mckinney and Cayleigh Pellitier as they defeated Brantlie Price and Katherine James. They won the sets by scores of 23-21 and 21-18.
The No. 3 doubles team of Mackenzie Fa’apouli and Madison Larrimore was also victorious against Leilani Campbell and Layla VanAernem. They would drop the first set 21-18 before rebounding to win the next two by scores of 21-17 and 16-14.
The last win for the Knights came via the No. 5 doubles tandem of Kaley Barger and Hayden Larrimore, who took down Tristan Craine and Arielle Deas. Barger and Larrimore would win the first and third sets by scores of 21-10 and 15-7 while losing the second set 21-19.
A box score for the team’s win over Brenau is not available as of this writing. As for the Knights’ game against Truett McConnell, Mckinney and Pellitier earned the team’s lone victory as the No. 1 doubles pair against Emma Boland and Jordan Roberts. The scores of the three sets were 21-10, 21-17 and 15-11.
St. Andrews will be back in action on Tuesday for a pair of games at Salem College. The start times for the contests are 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Baseball swept at Pikeville
The Knights headed up to Kentucky for a three-game series with the Bears over Friday and Saturday and lost all three games (9-2 on Friday, 15-4 in seven innings and 4-0 during Saturday’s doubleheader). St. Andrews falls to 19-14 (9-11 in conference games) on the season with the three losses while Pikeville improves to 19-18 (13-11 against conference opponents) with the three victories (six straight overall).
In Friday’s series opener, the Knights got one run in the top of the first and another in the third inning while Pikeville got one in the bottom of the third, one in the fifth, three in the sixth, one in the seventh and three more in the eighth. The Bears outhit St. Andrews 12-5 while each team committed two errors.
Garrett Hamby went 1-4 from the plate with an RBI while Aiden Wilson also had an RBI. Cesar Morillo, Josh Zambito, Bryson Bebber and Will Benjamin had one hit apiece.
The first game on Saturday saw the Bears immediately get three runs in the bottom of the first before running away with the game on the strength of four runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. St. Andrews got two runs in the top of the fourth frame and another two in the top of the sixth. Pikeville had nine hits to five for St. Andrews while the Knights committed two errors to one for the Bears.
Alfredo Jimenez Jr. led the Knights on offense with a 1-3 outing at the plate and two RBIs. Wilson and Eric Cantu both also went 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
The series finale had all four runs scored in half an inning with Pikeville getting their offense in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Bears outhit St. Andrews 5-2 in the game. No errors were committed by either team.
Wilson and Zambito had one hit each. Tyler Barfield pitched all six innings and had three strikeouts.
The Knights will return home for a nonconference game on Tuesday afternoon against Morris at 3 p.m. St. Andrews won the earlier season meeting between the teams by a score of 22-7 back on March 18.
Softball loses both games of home doubleheader with Union Commonwealth
The Knights hosted the Bulldogs for a pair of games on Sunday afternoon and lost both contests, dropping the first game 3-0 and the second contest (five innings) 9-1. St. Andrews falls to 3-29 (0-18 in conference games) on the season with the losses (16 straight overall) while the Bulldogs improve to 7-21 (5-13 against conference opponents) with the wins.
In the first game, Union Commonwealth got their runs spread out across the contest with one apiece in the first, second and seventh innings. The Bulldogs outhit St. Andrews 6-2 while the Knights committed three errors to two for Union Commonwealth.
Jaylin Joss and Meghan Fritz had one hit each. Fritz pitched all seven innings of the game and had one strikeout.
In the second game, the Bulldogs immediately jumped out ahead with three runs in the top of the first, another five in the second and one more in the fourth. St. Andrews got their lone run in the bottom of the fifth. Union Commonwealth outhit the Knights 12-1 while both teams committed two errors.
Tess Ruschman had the team’s lone RBI and also drew a walk. Joss had the team’s lone hit in a 1-3 outing with a run scored.
St. Andrews will head on the road for a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon against Tennessee Wesleyan. The games will start at noon and 2 p.m.
Men’s volleyball drops three games in Winston-Salem
The Knights headed up to Winston-Salem for three games over Friday and Saturday against Talladega, Life and Truett McConnell. St. Andrews lost all three games, losing to Talladega in a sweep on Friday before losing on Saturday to Life in four sets and to Truett McConnell in another sweep. The Knights fall to 1-15 (1-11 in conference games) on the season with the losses (seven straight overall).
Against Talladega, the scores of the sets were 25-16, 25-23 and 25-16. The Knights had fewer kills (19-38) and a worse hitting percentage in every set of the game, though they did commit fewer errors (13-16).
Khushpreet Sandhu led the team in kills with seven and also had three digs. Nicholas Scorzo led the way in assists with 14 and in digs with six.
Against Life, the Knights won the first set 25-22 but lost the next three by scores of 25-11, 25-16 and 27-25. The Knights had fewer kills (35-55) and fewer errors (17-26) than Life.
Kaleb Middleton led St. Andrews in kills with 13 and also had six digs. Scorzo dished out a team high 25 assists while Kyristan Moffatt led the way in digs with 10.
Against Truett McConnell, the scores of the sets were 25-17, 25-16 and 25-21. The Knights had fewer kills (20-35), more errors (13-12) and a worse hitting percentage in two of the three sets.
Joseph Mayers led St. Andrews in kills with eight and also had two digs. Scorzo led the team in assists with 14 while Sandhu led the way in digs with six.
The Knights have no further scheduled games as of this writing. The AAC tournament is scheduled to take place over April 17-April 19 at the Tribe Athletic Complex in Kingsport, Tennessee.