Small College Notebook

The still fledgling King men’s volleyball program will have the chance to show off its growth this weekend with two home games at the Student Center.

King will take on Eastern Mennonite at 7 p.m. on Friday and then will face Mt. Olive at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Admission is free for all Tornado home matches.

The team, in its third year of existence, is only 1-4 on the year, but has been competitive in each match, with three of its four loses coming in the maximum five games.

“It’s a theme for us this year,” said second-year coach John Greenlee. “We’ve got a lot of talent, but we get down to the end of games and we don’t quite know how to win yet.”

Greenlee guided the Tornado to its first winning season in 2009 as King finished 13-10 in his first year at the helm.

The men’s volleyball team is a part of a conference for the first time this season as Conference Carolinas added the sport and accepted King as a full men’s volleyball member for a five-team league in its inaugural season.

Lees-McRae and Mt. Olive previously had teams, while Limestone and Pfeiffer are competing in the sport for the first time in 2010.

“Having a couple more teams close is really nice,” Greenlee said.

Conference Carolinas is the only NCAA Division II men’s volleyball conference and Greenlee said the hope is that the conference winner will get a bid to the NCAA tournament in the coming years, giving a smaller school like King the chance to win a national title against Division I powerhouses like Penn State and UCLA.

While the Tornado aren’t ready to compete with the nation’s best yet, Greenlee said D-I and D-II programs both operate on the same 4.5-scholarship limit, which gives the smaller schools a fair shot at matching the bigger schools’ talent levels.

The men’s volleyball program has already helped spread King’s name around the nation as the team features players from nine different states, including senior leaders Cameron Sitler and Ariel Apolinario, who hail from Texas and Florida, respectively.

“Having a men’s volleyball program certainly gives the school more exposure in places where they would not otherwise have it,” Greenlee said.

Emory & Henry
The E&H tennis teams feature a strong local flavor.

Former John Battle standouts Jill and Jess Williams are the top seeds for veteran Wasps coach Jim Barker. Both players earned All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference honors last season as freshmen.

Third-seeded junior Savanna Tickle (Graham) is the veteran of the squad.

“The girls team is a bit thin this year, but we’re young and talented,” Barker said.

Senior Mike Rogers of Gate City serves as the team captain and third seed for the E&H men.

Sophomore Adam Henderson, who starred in football and tennis at Abingdon, started the season at the No. 5 seed after transferring from Bridgewater College.

Freshman Webster Gilley (Bristol, Tenn.) is the No. 6 seed, while Abingdon junior Will Garrison is the top reserve.

Top-seed Chip Wintringham was an All-ODAC selection in both singles and doubles last year. Freshman Matt Nelson (Galax) posted an unbeaten singles record during the fall season and teamed with Wintringham for a perfect mark at No. 1 doubles.

E&H was tabbed for sixth in both the men’s and women’s ODAC preseason coaches’ polls.

UVa.-Wise
Fresh off an Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament title and a berth in the NAIA national tournament, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise’s
softball team is eager to build on that success.

However, the team hasn’t had a chance to take the field this season as the Highland Cavaliers’ first four doubleheaders of the season were nixed due to the weather.

“We most likely will not get out on dirt until our first game,” said UVa.-Wise coach Tori Raby-Gentry. “It has been frustrating. However, we just continue to mix
things up in practice [and] do as much situational stuff as we can, so that when we do get to play we are ready. There are a lot of things you can control – the weather isn’t one.”

Raby-Gentry once again has a team loaded with talent. Proven performers Lauren Snead (19-9, 1.01 ERA) and Megan McCoy (12-8, one save, 2.56 ERA) will
anchor the pitching staff, while the lineup includes returnees Maddi Ridenour, Ashlee Washburn and Kaitlin Bennett.

Ridenour, a junior from Suffolk, Va., hit .360 from the leadoff spot last season and is one of the AAC’s top players.

“Maddi has really stepped up this season as a leader,” Raby-Gentry said. “She is a player you love to watch. … We hope we can add some offense this year
to take some pressure off of her. I look for her to have a better season than last year.”

Virginia Intermont
The Cobras’ baseball squad continued to show last weekend that 2009 is well in the past as VI picked up its third win of the season, topping last season’s win total.

VI shook off 15-2 and 5-0 setbacks to salvage the final game of a three-game set at Truett-McConnell, winning 4-3 Saturday afternoon to improve to 3-2 on the young season after going 2-48 last year.

“I was pretty proud,” said coach Josh Swain,

Sophomore righthander Rudy Staton picked up his second win of the season and the VI bats finally awakened, producing 11 hits after struggling at the plate in the first two games of the series.

“I think the biggest thing is our offense kind of stepped up,” Swain said, adding that the coaches ditched the patient approach they had advocated to start the series. “... We said forget it and went out swinging.”

After starting the season 2-0 with two victories over Emmanuel College in January, the Cobras had to wait nearly three weeks due to bad weather before they took the field again.

VI is in the midst of another stretch of 10 days off before the team plays its first home game of the season on Wednesday against Alice Lloyd College.

Swain said he hopes the wins continue to outnumber the losses as the season progresses.

“It is definitely very nice,” Swain said about his team’s start. “Hopefully there is more to come.”