HARROGATE, Tenn. – The winter schedule continues for men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor track and field and men's volleyball this week as baseball and men's and women's tennis begin their spring seasons. A total of eight Lincoln Memorial University athletic programs are in action with baseball's 2020 campaign getting underway this weekend in the Palmetto State and men's and women's tennis firing up their spring championship season with a pair of home matches Saturday and Sunday.
 
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 program's news, notes, performances and more.

Women's Basketball
The women's basketball team hosts arch-rival Carson-Newman Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and travels to Queens University of Charlotte Saturday for a 2 p.m. tilt. Wednesday evening's women's game is presented by Coca-Cola and DeRoyal Industries.
 
The matchup with the Eagles marks the 100th all-time meeting between the two schools, according to available records. Carson-Newman currently holds a 53-46 lead in the overall series, mainly on the back of a 17-game winning streak by the Eagles from 1974-87. Carson-Newman comes into the contest with a 13-5 overall and 9-3 South Atlantic Conference record.
 
Against Queens, LMU is 16-4, including winning their earlier meeting this season by a 58-52 margin. The Royals are currently 4-14 overall and 3-9 in the SAC.
 
Freshman Lauren Flowers leads the team in scoring with 10.9 points a game, followed by senior Shermeria Quarles with 8.4. Quarles also leads the team in rebounding with a 6.1 rebounds a game average and currently ranks fourth in the SAC in field goal percentage (52.9%). Flowers also ranks in the top 10 in the SAC in assists (6th) and made free throws (9th).

Men's Basketball
Riding the nation's longest winning streak at 19 games, the Railsplitters did nothing but pick up another pair of league victories last week. LMU (19-1, 12-0) wrapped up the first half of SAC play last Wednesday night with a 96-81 win at Tusculum before earning its 13th 20-point triumph of 2019-20 with a 26-point, 86-60 rout of Coker University inside Tex Turner Arena.
 
Owning 12 consecutive conference victories, which also leads the country, the Railsplitters look to remain unblemished in SAC play and perfect in 2020 with a home tilt Wednesday night and a road affair Saturday afternoon. LMU welcomes local rival Carson-Newman to Harrogate Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off before heading to nationally-ranked Queens Saturday for a 4 p.m. affair. Wednesday's home game is presented by Coca-Cola and DeRoyal Industries.
 
Turning in the fifth-best shooting outing in Railsplitter men's basketball history, LMU shot a remarkable 66 percent (35-of-53) from the field inside Pioneer Arena in the road win at Tusculum. Connecting on 13 of their 21 three-point attempts (61.9%), the Railsplitters shot a remarkable 74.1 percent (20-of-27) in the second half and knocked down six of their nine second-half three pointers. It was LMU's best shooting game since setting the program's single-game field goal percentage record at 73.4 percent in the Railsplitters' 87-point blowout of Mars Hill in December of 2017.
 
Getting a career-high 30 points on 11-for-17 shooting from redshirt sophomore guard Cameron Henry, LMU knocked down 14 three pointers and led for all but a scoreless opening 50 seconds Saturday in the win over the visiting Cobras. The Railsplitters led by as much as 30 in the second half as Henry became the third LMU player to notch a 30-point performance this season. He hit five of his eight three-point attempts, grabbed eight rebounds, went 3-for-3 at the free-throw line, handed out three assists and had both a block and a steal.
 
The Railsplitters continue to lead all of Division II basketball in two key categories, defensive rebounding (32.3 RPG) and field goal percentage defense (37.3%), while ranking second in scoring margin (24.1) and fourth in total assists (394), assists per game (19.7) and shooting (52.3%).
 
Wednesday night's matchup with the Eagles (7-11, 4-8) will be the 211th meeting between the two programs with LMU holding a 107-103 edge in the series. It will be the 101st game played between the two teams in Harrogate with the Railsplitters having won 60 of the prior 100 home games with Carson-Newman. LMU has not lost to the Eagles inside Tex Turner Arena since Feb. 4, 2015, and claimed a gritty 93-88 win in Jefferson City earlier this season on Nov. 26. after overcoming a 16-point deficit.
 
Head coach Josh Schertz has gone 19-9 versus Carson-Newman.
 
Back on Dec. 7, the Railsplitters snapped a three-game slide against Queens by defeating the then 12th-ranked Royals 73-64 in Harrogate. Outscoring Queens 39-21 in the first half, LMU shot 51 percent from the field while holding the Royals to 34.8 percent shooting. The Railsplitters own a 16-6 all-time record versus Queens and have gone 6-3 when the matchup has been played in Charlotte. The Blue and Gray are seeking their first win over the Royals in North Carolina since taking down top-ranked Queens on a Trevon Shaw go-ahead trey in January of 2018.

Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field
The men's and women's indoor track and field teams head to familiar territory this weekend when they compete in the Buccaneer Invitational at East Tennessee State University Friday and Saturday.
 
Both squads ran on the David E. Walker Track at Gentry Field just three weeks ago at the ETSU Invitational on Jan. 10-11.
 
The men and women are coming off a strong outing at the Roanoke College's Finn Pincus Invitational last weekend in Salem, Virginia, setting a number of school records in the process. Sophomore Roberto Fajardo set a new LMU standard in the 1,000-meter run while sophomore Maria Chellah broke program records in both the 1,000-meter and 600-meter run. Freshman Lauren Smith bested her school record in both the shot put and weight-throw with a career-best marks.
 
Following this weekend, the Railsplitters and Lady Railsplitters will have just one more tune-up meet, the VMI Indoor Classic Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14-15, before the SAC Championships Saturday, Feb. 29.

Baseball
The Railsplitters throw out the first pitch of their 2020 campaign this weekend when they travel to the Palmetto State for a three-game series at the Peach Belt Conference's USC Aiken Friday-Sunday, Jan. 31-Feb. 2. Friday will see a 4 p.m. start time from inside Roberto Hernandez Stadium in Aiken, South Carolina, while Saturday's first pitch is slated for 2 p.m. and Sunday's game is scheduled for a 1 p.m. opening toss.
 
On the heels of a third-straight NCAA Division II Southeast Regional appearance and third consecutive 30-win season, LMU is coming off of a 34-19 journey and a runner-up finish in the 2019 SAC race where the Railsplitters went 18-6 in league play. Picked to finish third in the 12-team SAC according to the conference's preseason poll as selected by the league's head coaches, the Railsplitters feature a trio of preseason All-SAC selections. Senior third baseman Tyler Adams and fellow senior Nate Stinson were both preseason all-conference first-team picks, while senior catcher Dalton Dedas was chosen as a preseason All-SAC Second Team member. Both Adams and Stinson were all-conference and all-region performers a year ago.
 
Picked eighth in the Southeast Region by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), LMU's 2019 recruiting class was the fifth-best in all of Division II baseball according to Perfect Game. Despite losing left-handed pitcher Ethan Elliott, who was selected in the 10th round of the 2019 MLB draft as the highest Railsplitter pitcher ever taken in the MLB Draft, and first baseman Chris Salvey, who recently inked a professional contract with the New York Boulders of the Frontier League, LMU returns 18 total letter winners for the spring, including seven pitchers. The Railsplitters also welcome 21 newcomers, including seven transfers and 14 freshman.
 
LMU is seeking its first series win over the Pacers since knocking off then sixth-ranked USC Aiken in two out of three games in February of 2010. With only 16 total wins against the Pacers in 59 games since 2000, the Railsplitters will be going for their first victory over USC Aiken since a 6-3 road triumph in South Carolina on Feb. 3, 2018.

Men's Volleyball
LMU men's volleyball (4-3) had a historic week last week, hosting the first-ever volleyball match inside Tex Turner Arena by welcoming in top-ranked University of Hawai'i at Mānoa last Monday night. Showcasing one of the elite programs in NCAA Division I-II volleyball, the Railsplitters and Rainbow Warriors competed among a boisterous crowd of over 2,000 in a one-hour, 16-minute affair in Harrogate. Then Saturday afternoon, LMU earned its first Division I match win in program history by upending Saint Francis University in five sets.
 
Despite dropping all three sets, the Railsplitters showed fight until the end against the Warriors and nearly won a tightly-contested, 25-23 third set. Hawai'i was just the second top-ranked NCAA team in any sport to visit Harrogate and was the first Division I No. 1 team LMU has hosted.
 
Facing their third-straight Division I team Saturday afternoon inside Mary Mars Gymnasium, the Railsplitters played a five-set thriller with the visiting Red Flash. LMU recorded a season-best 18.5 total blocks and dominated sets one and three, 25-20 and 25-19, before earning a 15-12 victory in the decisive fifth set.
 
After attacking at a .556 clip with a match-high 16 kills against the No. 1 team in the country and tallying a team-high 15 kills with a season-best seven blocks in the Railsplitters' five-set win over Saint Francis University, senior opposite Evan Cory was named Off the Block Independent Teams Player of the Week for the second time of the young season. He averaged 15.5 kills, 4.0 blocks and six digs while holding a .362 attack percentage in last week's pair of matches.
 
Friday evening, LMU wraps up its three-match homestand by hosting Conference Carolinas' Belmont Abbey in a 7 p.m. first serve from inside Mary Mars Gym.
 
The Railsplitters have won three out of their four previous meetings with the Crusaders (2-5), including a five-set win in Belmont, North Carolina, last march. Last January, LMU defeated Belmont Abbey in four sets in Harrogate after splitting matches with the Crusaders in 2018. The Blue and Gray are 2-0 against Belmont Abbey in Mary Mars Gym with only last season's opening set loss.

Women's Tennis
The women's tennis team opens the spring portion of their schedule this weekend as they host a pair of local rivals. On Saturday, LMU hosts the University of the Cumberlands at 9 a.m. and Union College comes to town on Sunday for a 2 p.m. dual. The matches will mark the debut of LMU head coach Marc Walters.
 
Since 2008, the Lady Railsplitters are 17-1 against the Patriots, with the lone loss coming in Williamsburg in 2013. Against Union, LMU is 7-0 since 2008 with five of those wins coming in Harrogate.
 
Men's Tennis
Like the women, the men's team opens against the University of the Cumberlands Saturday at 9 a.m. and Union Sunday at 2 p.m.
 
Against Cumberlands, the Railsplitters are 13-4 since 2008, while they are 4-3 against Union. The Bulldogs enter the contest ranked 10th in the preseason NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll.

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.