A-Sun What to Watch For - Sept. 25, 2009

Cross Country:
• In a light weekend for A-Sun cross country where only three teams run, the spotlight shines on Macon, Ga., at the Mercer RunFit Sports Invitational where Mercer and Kennesaw State return to the venue of the 2008 A-Sun Championship. The Owls’ women took third led by a runner-up finish from Mackenzie Howe. Since that race, the junior has not lost a cross country race as she has placed first at all three meets this fall. She also took second at last year’s running of this particular meet. The Kennesaw State men matched the women’s standing at last year’s championship. Scott Burley took eighth with Piotr Witczak finishing in 18th.
• Lipscomb, fresh off winning its first team win in the NCAA era, travels north to Minneapolis, Minn., to compete in the Roy Griak Invitational.

Golf:
• Two tournaments feature a total of five A-Sun schools this weekend. Belmont and Lipscomb will stay in town to tee it up at the Mason Rudolph Championships from the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin. For the Bisons, it will be their first tournament of the fall. The Bruins placed sixth at the Yestingsmeier Invitational held earlier this week.
• Jacksonville and Stetson hit the links for the first time along with Campbell at the Sea Trail Intercollegiate in Sunset Beach, N.C., hosted by Elon University. The Hatters competed at the event last year and took 10th.
• The lone women’s event of the weekend featuring an A-Sun school takes place in Lexington, Ky., where Kennesaw State take on 14 other schools at the Bettie Lou Evans Fall Invitational hosted by the University of Kentucky at the University Club. At the season-opening Lady Paladin Invitational, freshman Ket Preamchuen tied for fourth.
• USC Upstate makes the long flight to Carvallis, Ore to Trysting Tree Golf Club for the third annual Giustina Memorial Intercollegiate. The tournament features a unique format in which men and women teams play together in the same foursomes during each round.

Men’s Soccer:
• Stetson looks to stay undefeated and untied with matches against the College of Charleston and Jacksonville in the JU Nike Invitational. The Hatters and the Cougars battle Friday in the Atlantic Sun game of the week 5:00 p.m. on Friday in Jacksonville, Fla.
• Belmont and the A-Sun’s leading goal scorer Brandon Tarr hit the road this weekend to take on Wofford on Friday and Furman on Sunday. The Bruins are 5-2-0 all-time against Wofford, and they are 1-4-0 all-time against Furman.
• Lipscomb looks to build on a 3-2 win last Sunday against Alabama A&M. The Bisons’ and current A-Sun Player of the Week Garret Pettis travel to Furman on Friday and then head to Spartanburg, S.C. to take on Wofford.

Women’s Soccer:
• This weekend marks the first full weekend of conference play for the A-Sun women’s soccer teams. Campbell and Kennesaw State sit atop the A-Sun Conference standings as they have each already claimed an A-Sun win entering the weekend.
• Stetson and Kennesaw State meet in the A-Sun Game of the Week with lot of interesting matchups as the 2008 Preseason A-Sun Player of the Year (Catlin Dingle, Kennesaw State), the 2008 Player of the Year (Tessa Gavilsky, Stetson) and the 2009 Preseason Player of the Year (Maylee Attin-Johnson) will all be action in this match.
• With two A-Sun Player of the Week awards under her belt, Katelin Swift leads UNF on the road for a matchup with ETSU on Friday and a road match with USC Upstate. Swift leads the A-Sun in points with 17 and goals with seven.

Volleyball:
• Stefine “Jake” Pease, the Atlantic Sun Volleyball Player of the Week and the quarterback of the Lipscomb’s Lady Bisons’ offense, deftly distributed the ball in an effective inside-outside attack in the sweeps against FGCU and Stetson. She passed the 3,000-assist mark last weekend, pushing her total to 3,037 for her career, and ranks eighth in the nation in assists per set with 11.71.
• The Lady Bisons are climbing the records charts on levels ranging from program highs to national rankings. In NCAA Division I through games of Sept. 20, the Lady Bisons as a team average 13.54 assists per set, sixth best in the nation; 14.54 kills per set; seventh best; and 26th in digs per set, 16.71.This week in the conference, junior middle hitter Alex Kelly ranks eighth overall in digs and senior opposite Erin Pierce ranks 10th. Kelly also ranks 12th in the nation in kills per set with 4.49 and is only three kills away from 1,000 for her career.
• The Atlantic Sun Conference Volleyball Match of the Week features Campbell and ETSU, a pair of teams fairly even in conference play, at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. With three straight A-Sun wins, Campbell improved to 8-5 on the season with a 3-1 league record. ETSU picked up two big conference wins this past weekend defeating Kennesaw State and Mercer on the road to move into third place in the Atlantic Sun. Last season, the Bucs took both matches with the Camels after ETSU won the lone contest between the two in 2007. Since the start of 2007, ETSU owns a 15-9 mark at Brooks Gymnasium. The match airs on ASun.TV.