Southern Virginia Fall Sports in Review
By Zoey Reade and Jeffrey Tomlin
Cross Country
The Knight’s cross country team ended this year with their best overall performance in school history, despite the difficulty of the courses ran. Runners Colter May and Mike Myers led the team with individual stats, which put the team third in the conference come championship time. The girl’s cross country suffered with runners Sydney Bigelow and Amy Simpson out due to injuries, but still had an overall good season. Coach May has progressively advanced the team, reaching championships. Like most sports this fall, an infusion of youth was introduced as well to learn under the upper-classmen previously mentioned.
Katie Huber, ’21, stated, “I am grateful for and have loved the opportunity to run at SVU and be apart of the cross country team.” She continued, “Hopefully we can continue getting depth as a team with returning missionaries and freshman next year and in the years to come!”
Football
Much like the rosters of other teams this fall 2018 season, the Knights football team featured a mixture of brand-new faces and seasoned veterans. The first year of the Coach Ed Mulitalo era ended in 3–7. The Knights left much to improve, but show great potential.
Running back Akiva Wedge toted the ball 195 times for 1,032 yards during the season. Safety Neil Davis ended the season with 8 pass breakups, 49 tackles, and 3 interceptions. Both of these players were voted to the NJAC All-Conference Team and will continue to be building blocks for next year, along with returning coaches who are familiar with the Southern Virginia University program.
Golf
Women’s
Southern Virginia’s women’s golf team had their pre-season tournaments this fall. In the last RMC Invitational, the golf team got third place out of four teams, with a final score of 364. Rachel Gardiner, Bailey Rusick Vinson and Bailey Pfunder of the Knights scored in the top 10 of the invitational.
Ashley Nokes, ‘22, from the team said, “I think the highlight of the season was just being with the team. The bond that makes our team had makes every day of the season special, memorable and enjoyable.”
Men’s
The men’s golf team competed in six tournaments this fall, typically finishing above average in their results. The team’s overall standing was lead by Junior Coulson Hardy and newcomer Nathan Ouimette, the latter who broke several Southern Virginia University golf records in his first season on the team.
Soccer
Women’s
In Kenzie Cox’s second year as head coach, the women’s soccer team finished the year with a record of 4 wins and 13 loses. The team consisted of 13 freshmen, all of which contributed to the young team. Early in the season, the women’s team picked up a couple of wins but began to fall in the final stretch of the year. Senior forward Jamila Anderson was named to the CAC Second All-Conference.
Captain and goalie Carmel Armstrong, ’19, commented on the season that, “Most of our starting lineup had some kind of serious injury during the season and that definitely impacted our level of play against our tough competitors.” She continued, “Luckily we had strong underclassmen to come off the bench and make an impact on the field.”
Men’s
The men’s soccer team continued to build its program this year. The Knights started five freshmen in a 1–16 year, this being the last of former head coach Jan Boer. Hoping to start building a culture, new faces such as Zack Martin and Seth Grieve played or started every game. Transfer goalie Jacob Solis from Salt Lake Community College became a rock for the building team and ranked fourth in the nation in saves, with 101 total.
Now looking for a new head coach and continuing to bring in new faces, the men’s soccer team will look to establish a winning culture heading into next year.
“We have a lot of potential, we are a very young school that people are just now hearing about,” remarked interim head coach, Colin Flynn. “Some people may not like it because of the high standards we hold to our students. Whoever comes could easily create themselves as the face of a program because of how young we are.”
Spirit Squad
Cheerleading and Dance had a successful season, partnering with each other to form the SVU Spirit Squad. The two built upon each other as they practice more intense and intricate routines as they cheered at different sporting events.
The team will now be heading into the Spring semester, filled with stunting, games, and competitions. Last year, the cheer team placed second in team and took first and second in partner stunting. “We are planning to do several competitions this year and we couldn’t be more excited,” said Coach Pendleton. The team is practicing difficult stunts and working on technique in order to prepare for the higher level competitions.
Coach Pendelton commented, “I’m so proud of all the hard work, time and dedication these athletes put into practice every morning. I’m grateful to be their coach and can’t wait to see where this next semester takes us.”
Tennis
Women’s
The women’s tennis team took a hard hit when four of their 12 players were injured, requiring the three new freshmen, Rachel Neeleman, Alyssa Sewell, and Morgan Blount, to step up to the plate. Neeleman, ‘22, commented, “Playing college tennis is a totally new experience for me, but I have an amazing team and I’m excited to see how our team does in the spring!”
Earlier in September, the tennis team played in an ITA tournament at Mary Washington. After five matches, SVU player Lauren Morrison won her bracket, beating out players from top-ranked schools like Salisbury and Christopher Newport. The team also went on to win 2–0 in matches against Pfieffer University and Randolph College. The team is hoping to bring injured players back for their spring season so that they can continue with their success.
Men’s
The men’s tennis team had a successful and undefeated pre-season with three wins and no losses. In the regional ITA tournament, the team had many individual wins over top 25 nationally ranked teams. Later on in the season the team had a big win against Averett University, beating them 6–3 after losing to them the previous year 5–4.
“This season we will continue to improve over previous years’ results,” said Zachary Bowers, ‘19. “Last year we were a good program, but our goal is to become an elite program.”
The men’s tennis team hopes to keep building the team and strengthen the bonds between teammates. Their goal is to improve their standing within the conference, aiming to break into the top three after taking fourth in the 2017–2018 season.
Women’s Volleyball
It was a rebuilding year for the Knight’s women’s volleyball team and head coach Debbie Baker, only starting four upper-classmen and a first-year head coach. However, the team ended with a record of 15–10, 4–3 in the conference and a playoff berth. Junior LaRee Crockett was selected to be All CAC-Conference First Team. With a brand new coach, an arsenal of talented young players finishing with a positive record there’s a lot to look forward to for this team.
