HARROGATE, Tenn. – A total of seven Lincoln Memorial University athletic programs are in action this week as the Railsplitter men's basketball team hosts its home-opening non-conference tournament and women's and men's soccer and women's volleyball close out their home schedules of the 2019 season. Men's and women's cross country begin postseason competition at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional meet, while women's bowling returns to fall tournament play.
 
Throughout 2019-20, LMU athletics will provide a look ahead at the week's calendar of athletic events, both home and away, previewing each team's competition/s and highlighting team's news, notes, performances and more.
 
Women's Soccer
Currently sitting tied for fifth with Queens in the South Atlantic Conference standings, the Lady Railsplitters (12-4, 5-4) conclude the regular season with a 1 p.m. matchup versus Mars Hill (2-12-1, 2-7) Wednesday for Senior Day 2019 at the LMU Soccer Complex.
 
Assuming LMU wraps up the regular season with a victory and earns three points, a fifth-place finish seems probable as the Lady Railsplitters have the tiebreaker with the Royals and are four points from fourth-place Carson-Newman. In that same assumption, it would mean LMU would travel to rival Carson-Newman for the first round of the SAC Tournament at this weekend.
 
The Lady Railsplitters are heating up at the right time and have pieces in sophomore forward Jessica Cravero, who has scored seven goals over the past three games for a team and league-high 15 scores, and the newest single-season leader in assists (Thenia Zervas) who passed across five assists within two matches for a new program record 15, which is also the most in the SAC. LMU has to take care of business against a Lions team that didn't win a match in the month of October and ended a seven-match skid with a 3-2 victory over Tusculum this past Friday.
 
In 19 meetings, the Lady Railsplitters are 15-4 versus Mars Hill, winning the last two including a 5-nil taming last season. At home, LMU is 7-2 versus Lions with a 3-2 win in 2017 being the most recent tilt.
 
Men's Soccer
The LMU men's soccer team had a quiet week of competition this past week with only one contest at Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina, Saturday. The Railsplitters (5-7-3, 4-4-1) found themselves trailing 1-0 after a goal was scored by Coker's Jacques Fokam-Sandeu. Later in the 36th minute, sophomore midfielder Danilo Seglio scored with an assist credited to freshman midfielder Hunter Stroble to tie the game at 1-1. After a Cobra shot found the back of the net and broke the tie in the 87th minute, Coker held on for its first-ever victory over LMU.
 
This week the Blue and Gray returns to Harrogate, hosting Mars Hill for the final regular-season match at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the LMU Soccer Complex. The Railsplitters are 5-8-1 all-time versus the Lions and hold a 3-3 record against Mars Hill at home. Winning its previous two outings with the Lions, LMU defeated Mars Hill 2-0 last fall in North Carolina after earning a 3-1 triumph in the opening round of the 2017 SAC Tournament at the LMU Soccer Complex.
 
With just one regular-season match left to play, a lot is still yet to be determined in the SAC men's soccer race. The Railsplitters are currently sitting in a seventh-place tie in the league standings but could move up into a tie for fourth place with a win Wednesday. With the top eight teams making the SAC Tournament, which begins this weekend with the quarterfinal round at campus sites, and the top four hosting the first round, LMU will most likely need a tie Wednesday to secure its spot in the conference championship.
 
Women's Volleyball
The Lady Railsplitters wrap up home play this week after a successful weekend and back-to-back victories. This past Friday, LMU won a thrilling five-set affair at Tusculum before claiming its third SAC series sweep of 2019 with a dominant straight-set win over UVa-Wise Saturday afternoon inside Mary Mars Gymnasium.
 
Without a midweek match, the Lady Railsplitters return to the court for action Friday for a 7 p.m. tilt with Lenoir Rhyne. The match will serve as LMU's Senior Night 2019 where Lady Railsplitter seniors Rylee Storms, Lindsey Nartker, Abby Higgins and Kaylee Stone will all be honored prior to the match. Saturday, LMU will wrap up its final homestand of the fall with a 2 p.m. contest against Mars Hill. Saturday afternoon's match will most likely be the final Lady Railsplitter volleyball match ever played in Mary Mars Gym as LMU's new indoor volleyball facility in the valley is set to be complete by fall of 2020.
 
Having gone 13-17 all-time against Lenoir-Rhyne, the Lady Railsplitters are looking to avenge their first SAC loss of the season, a five-set defeat in Hickory, North Carolina, against the Bears on Sept. 15. Prior to a 3-1 win in Harrogate last season, LMU had lost three-straight against Lenoir-Rhyne dating back to Nov. 15, 2016. The Lady Railsplitters are 8-6 versus the Bears inside Mary Mars Gym.
 
Despite owning a convincing 27-10 record against Mars Hill, LMU dropped a 3-0 affair to the Lions in North Carolina just last week. Last Tuesday was only Mars Hill's second win over the Lady Railsplitters in 11 tries since 2013. Before a 3-1 setback in September of 2018, LMU had won eight-straight over the Lions. With a 14-2 all-time home record versus Mars Hill, the Lady Railsplitters have not lost a match to the Lions in Harrogate since November of 2011.
 
Men's Basketball
The Railsplitters' 2019-20 campaign got underway over the weekend inside the Saint Joseph Civic Arena in Saint Joseph, Missouri, as LMU went 1-1 at the fourth annual Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic. Despite sophomore guard Courvoisier McCauley knocking down a go-ahead three in the waning seconds of the Railsplitters' battle with seventh-ranked West Texas A&M, LMU was unable to regain the lead in overtime and dropped the season opener, 99-89. However, the sixth-ranked Railsplitters looked mighty efficient in a 50-point, 98-48 upheaval of Davenport University, who won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference a season ago and is receiving votes in the national preseason poll.
 
Shooting 64 percent (32-of-50) for the game against the Panthers, which is the sixth-best shooting performance in program history, LMU went 18-for-27 from beyond the arc Saturday afternoon for the sixth-highest three-point shooting percentage (667%) in a single game in school history.
 
Averaging a team-high 22.5 points in the two games, McCauley was named to the 2019 Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic Team, along with senior guard Anthony Brown who led the team in both rebounding (6.5 RPG) and assists (4.5 APG) across the weekend.
 
This weekend, the Railsplitters open up the home portion of their season by hosting the SAC vs. Peach Belt Conference Challenge with Clayton State, USC Aiken and fellow league member Tusculum visiting Tex Turner Arena. LMU will take on Clayton State Friday night at 7:30 p.m. for its home opener, before facing receiving votes USC Aiken Saturday in a 4 p.m. tip-off. The Railsplitters won both of their previous two matchups with the Lakers, which were both in 2018. In the 2018 NCAA Southeast Regional semifinals in Harrogate, LMU defeated Clayton State 87-61 before earning an 82-61 triumph over the Lakers in the Railsplitters' 2018-19 season opener in Aiken, South Carolina. LMU has faced USC Aiken just once in program history, suffering a 79-68 road setback in the Railsplitters' second game of the 2018-19 season.
 
Friday's game against Clayton State is sponsored by Appalachian Regional Hospital, while Saturday's tilt with the Pacers is presented by Angelo's in the Gap.
 
Women's Bowling
The LMU women's bowling squad returns to the lanes for tournament action following a three-week break from competition. Getting their 2019-20 season started Friday-Sunday, Oct. 18-20 at the seventh annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invitational in Harahan, Louisiana, the Lady Railsplitters turned in an eighth-place finish after going 5-8 and recording 12,007 pins among a highly competitive 16-team tournament field that featured three of the top five teams in the nation, five of the top 10 and nine of the top 20. Senior Mary-Kate Kersting was named 2019 Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invitational MVP and landed a spot on the all-tournament team, becoming the first Lady Railsplitter to be tabbed tournament MVP in program history and just the fifth LMU bowler to earn a major all-tournament team honor. For her performance, Kersting was recognized as East Coast Conference Bowler of the Week in the league's second weekly award of the season.
 
This Friday-Sunday, Nov. 8-10, LMU travels to Madison, Wisconsin, for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Warhawk Classic, presented by Roto Grip. The three-day tournament held at Bowl-A-Vard Lanes will feature 13 NCAA women's bowling programs with five, five-game Baker matches beginning at 12 p.m. EST Friday. Saturday, five traditional team matches will take place starting at 10:25 a.m. EST before three rounds of best 4-of-7 bracket play Baker matches conclude the event Sunday at 9:30 a.m. EST. Seeding for Sunday's bracket play will be determined by teams' pinfall total from Friday and Saturday's Baker and traditional team matches.
 
The Lady Railsplitters will be making their fourth-straight appearance at the Warhawk Classic, where they placed 11th out of 18 teams a year ago.
 
Men's and Women's Cross Country
The LMU men's and women's cross country teams close out their respective seasons Saturday in Wingate, North Carolina, when they participate in the NCAA Southeast Regional meet.
 
The men will again be led by All-SAC Second Team performers senior Sam Lloyd Perks and sophomore Michael Jakubek. Sophomore Kiley Holmes will again be the pacesetter for the women.
 
Lloyd-Perks and Jakubek have been a solid one-two punch for the Railsplitters all season, capping off the regular schedule with top-10 finishes at the SAC Championship on Saturday, Oct. 26. Lloyd-Perks claimed an eighth-place finish at the conference race, followed by Jakubek in ninth place.
 
"Sam and Mike (Michael) are pretty confident coming into this race," commented head coach Jeremy Donahue. "They both gutted out a gritty performance at the conference meet and are going to be pushed to a higher level at regionals."
 
Freshman Mason Johns ran a strong race, finishing 31st at the SAC Championship, followed by senior Harrison Calhoun, junior Daniel Johnson and sophomore Micah Moss. All will be competing Saturday as well.
 
"Mason ran a good race last time out and Harrison is looking to redeem himself," stated Donahue.
 
The team battle will have SAC Champion Queens, Anderson and Wingate in the mix, along with regional powers Flagler College, Mt. Olive, Augusta State and UNC Pembroke battling for the top spot.
 
In the women's race, all eyes will be on Kiley Holmes, who has led the Lady Railsplitters all season. Holmes will be leading the pack with freshman Maria Chellah, junior Chloe Harp, sophomore Unique Earley and freshman McKenna Korody close behind.
 
"Queens and Wingate will be right there in the women's team standings," noted Donahue. "Mt. Olive has also done well both regionally and nationally over the last five or six years."
 
The women's race begins at 9 a.m., followed by the men's race at 10:15 a.m.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Railsplitter and Lady Railsplitter athletics throughout 2019-20.