Men’s basketball is off to Alabama for an important Southern Conference game against Samford, and women’s basketball is off till Saturday.

Spring sports are sallying forth.

Freshmen Christina McCoy and Ansley Chiang combined to go 5/5 with three runs batted in to propel Furman to a 9-3 victory over Lipscomb in the final game of the Furman Softball Invitational Sunday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium.

 The victory gave the Paladins a 3-1 record for the weekend and improved Furman to 7-2 on the season. Lipscomb slipped to 3-6.

 After Chiang got the Paladins on the board with a sacrifice fly to drive in Lauralee Scott in the bottom of the third inning, the Paladins struck for three runs in the fourth.

Lipscomb answered with three runs of its own in the top of the fifth inning to trim the Paladin advantage to 4-3, but junior Emme Buzhardt came out of the bullpen to induce a ground ball and strand two Bison runners. Furman put the game away in the bottom half of the fifth inning.

Starter Sierra Tufts improved to 4-0 in the circle after allowing three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings of work. She fanned two batters and did not issue a walk.

 Ryleigh Sapp (2-2) suffered the loss for Lipscomb. She gave up four runs, three of which were unearned, on five hits in three innings.

Sophomore Sylvia Burroughs belted a grand slam and drove in all five runs to lead Furman to a 5-1 victory over Towson before the Paladins dropped an 8-4 decision to Georgetown in the nightcap of day two on Saturday.

Senior Hannah Poole capped a three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning with a two-run homer to propel Furman to a 3-2 victory over IUPUI in the final game of Friday’s action.

Trailing 2-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, Furman’s Ainley Yoshizumi opened the frame with a single through the right side and Ashlee Lykins reached on a bunt single to start the rally. A double play left the Paladins (5-1) with a runner on second and two outs, but Kiley Perry kept the rally alive with an RBI double into the gap before Poole launched a two-run blast to left-center field to give Furman the 3-2 lead.

Furman is back in action on Wednesday at 5 p.m. when it faces South Carolina in Columbia.

Furman seniors Cameron Ponder and Dylan Schubert ran sub-4:00 miles, and the Paladin women won two events Saturday at the USC Indoor Open at the Carolina Indoor Track & Field Complex in Columbia.

Ponder, a native of Winston-Salem, N.C., won the event with a personal-best time of 3:57.66 to record his fifth-career sub-4:00 mile. Schubert, who hails from Loveland, Colo., ran a collegiate mile in competition for the first time on Saturday, placing second with a time of 3:58.38. Later in the day, Williams went on to finish third in the 800m with a time of 1:52.56.  

In addition to Ponder’s victory, the Paladin women picked up gold in both the mile and the 3,000m.  Junior Sierra Bower won the mile with a time of 4:46.10, and senior Madelynne Cadeau took first in the 3,000m at 9:43.42. 

Anna Roser scored a school-record nine goals on Sunday to propel the Furman women’s lacrosse team to its first win of the season, 19-15, over the Kennesaw State Owls at Paladin Stadium.

The win, also the first for interim head coach Lauren Farber, improves Furman to 1-1 on the season and collects its program-best fifth consecutive win over the Owls. With the loss, Kennesaw State drops to 2-1 overall.
With the score knotted at 3-all, Harvard’s Angel You held off Furman junior Jess Dawson in three sets, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3, at flight six to lead the Crimson past the Paladins, 4-3, Saturday at the Mickel Tennis Center.

Furman won doubles matches at flights one and three to take the opening point.  Dawson teamed with freshman Maeve Thornton for a 6-3 victory over Holly Fischer and Stephanie Yakoff at number one, and juniors Sara Snyder and Grace Thomas defeated Rachel Arbitman and Iveta Daujotaite, 6-3, at number three.  Paladin junior Ellie Schulson and freshman Macy Hitchcock led Maxi Duncan and Kavya Karra, 5-2, in the unfinished flight two contest. 

Junior Will Morlan (-1) fired a final-round 69 to tie for 13th Saturday at the Gators Invitational, which was hosted by Florida over the weekend at the par-70, 6,701-yard Mark Bostick Golf Course in Gainesville, Fla.

Morlan, a native of Alpharetta, Ga., teed off on No. 12 and birdied Nos. 12 and 17.  After a bogey on No. 18, he made the turn at 1-under and parred out the front nine.  

North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik (-13) won the tournament by one stroke with rounds of 68-65-64=197.  

Host Florida (-26), which ranks 23rd nationally, won the tournament by 13 strokes over 26th-ranked North Florida (-13), while the Paladins (+5) tied for fourth with Florida Atlantic (+5). 

The Paladins will compete at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in Aiken, March 4-5. 

I’m mostly recovered from shingles at last. I’ve tried to keep up best I could. At least one story has been posted for 39 days, a record for the site. I’m strapped for cash but still writing as hard and resourcefully as I can.

A couple contributions arrived over the weekend. I can’t express my gratitude enough.

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