Tough Day for Eagles at St. Andrews

David Finney | photo by Gian-Luca Fahling

Laurinburg, NC - The Eagles were on the road for a mid-week matchup with the Knights of St. Andrews. The Knights were able to defend their home turf by beating the Eagles in three straight sets. This is one that the Eagles will have to take as a learning experience. The loss leaves them 6-4 overall and 3-3 in conference play. 

The first set started close and the Eagles had a small lead throughout most of the first set. Reinhardt would carry at least a two-point lead for most of the first set until St. Andrews was able to tie it at 23 all. The Knights would then have two straight kills to take the first set 25-23. Matthew Corrales started strong for Reinhardt and had 9 kills with a .286 hitting percentage for the entire match

In the second set, it would stay close until St. Andrews developed a big lead after being tied at 11 points. Several serving and hitting errors would be costly for the Eagles and St. Andrews would get a solid seven-point lead, 22-15, which they would not reliquish.  Victor Pacheco would get a kill and a block helping Reinhardt edge back into the set 19-22, however, from this point on - the Eagles would only get one more point losing the set 20-25.

The third set would be a repeat of the second where the set started close and then midway St. Andrews would get a seven-point lead again, 18-11. Small errors and some balls not going the right way caused the Eagles to dig themselves a hole. Reinhardt would edge their way back into the set getting to within two at 22-20 - but the Knights would not mess around any longer and finish off the set 25-21. Reinhardt did show that they would not give up despite being down several points, but they just did not have enough to pull out a win today.

It was not the best night for the Eagles, however, this is still a team that is developing and learning how to win. Coach Goodhind had this to say about the match, "Tough day on the court today. First, hats off to SAU and staff as they simply outworked and outplayed us! As a staff, we are going to continue to try and train our guys how to win the right way. Right now, we have a bunch of guys that need to put in the work to get better as a team and as an individual. The work you put in as an athlete will 100% correlate with your attitude. Win or lose I want to give all the Honor and Glory to God! "

The Eagles will have a weekend break from games and will be back on the court on Monday as they visit Truett-McConnell to start off the new week. Look for Reinhardt to get back on track and continue the good season that they are having.