Saints top Flyers in Home Opener

The Flyers dropped both matches of a doubleheader to Salem College tuesday, falling 5–0 in each contest.

Match One

Salem 5, Sandhills 0

At the No. 1 position, Brooke Emore and Olivia Rosy battled Madison Bozarth and Sadie Rich in a tight contest but fell in straight sets, 21–19 and 21–18.

Katelyn Bunning and Reagan Malpass dropped their No. 2 match to Mackenzie Tullock and Ellie Shearer, 21–11, 21–17.

At No. 3, Emery Freeman and Reagan Smith fell to Leah Reimer and Olivia Torres, 21–6, 21–5.

Taylor Miller and Olivia Bowman were defeated at No. 4 by Taylor Cook and Ariana Nobles, 21–8, 21–5.

In the No. 5 pairing, Kennedy Koziarz and Jaselyn Fink competed well but fell to Jolina Bun and Emma Marion, 21–18, 21–15.

In exhibition play, Jacque Holden and Nevaeh Ross were defeated by Molly Eno and Polly Lenny, 21–15, 21–16.

Match Two

Salem 5, Sandhills 0

The Flyers showed improvement in the second match, pushing multiple pairings to three sets.

At No. 1, Emore and Rosy earned a 21–17 opening set win before dropping the final two sets, 24–22 and 16–14, to Bozarth and Rich.

Bunning and Malpass also forced a third set at No. 2. After falling 21–12 in the first set, they responded with a 23–21 win in set two before dropping the deciding set, 15–10.

Reagan Smith and Jacque Holden fell in straight sets at No. 3 to Reimer and Torres, 21–8, 21–18.

Miller and Bowman dropped their No. 4 match 21–11, 21–16 to Cook and Nobles.

At No. 5, Koziarz and Fink were forced to medically withdraw during their match with Julianna Bond and Emma Marion.

In the exhibition match, Nevaeh Ross and Alyssa Ingle fell to Eno and Lenny, 21–7, 21–14.

Despite the final scores, Sandhills showed resilience in the second dual by forcing two matches to three sets and competing more consistently across the lineup against at solid NCAA opponent. Flyers pairs notched wins in four exhibition matches with the Spirits. Anyssia Mains, Kaylee Lancaster and Ava Hancock completed a 2-0 win. Riley Newton and Alyssa Ingle picked up a 2-1 win. Madison Scheffler and Giannie Small grabbed a 2-0 decision and Averi Cuddeback and Liz Bryson took down their opponents 2-0 as well. The Flyers will look to build on that progress as they continue early-season play. Sandhills travels to Wingate University next Wednesday for a dual before opening Region 10 play at Richard Bland on Friday February 27th.