Ornela Bacchini was selected as Red River Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Co-Player of the Week for the dates of Nov. 4-10. Bacchini, a senior center from Buenos Aires, Argentina, missed only two shots while accounting for 17 points and nine rebounds in an 81-74 defeat of Texas Wesleyan University. She was 7-of-9 from the field and 3-of-3 from the free throw line as the Saints won their season opener. Read full story online.
The women’s soccer team is set for the conference semifinals that take place Friday at the Houston Amateur Sports Park. The Saints, the No. 1-seed in the conference, will play No. 4-seed Southwest at 12:30 p.m. No. 2 Brownsville will play No. 3 Huston-Tillotson University at 3 p.m. The winners of both games will advance to the championship match on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 5 p.m.
The Saints finished the regular season as the conference champions with a 6-0 record and 14-2-1 overall. Last week, they improved to No. 19 from No. 21 in the 2013 NAIA Women’s Soccer Coaches’ Top 25 Poll.
Ceara O’Donnell was selected as the Red River Athletic Conference Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week for the dates of Oct. 21-27. O’Donnell, a freshman from Corpus Christi, Texas, posted a time of 19:53 on the 5K course at the Mid-States Classic on Saturday. She set an OLLU record for her time and has been entered into the University’s Halo Club for Cross-Country for running the 5K in under 20 minutes. She placed 77th in a field of 162 competitors and guided the OLLU team to its best finish in three years at the event. The cross-country teams will prepare for the conference tournament that takes place this weekend in Marshall, Texas. Read more online.
The OLLU volleyball team ended the regular season with a loss and a win this past weekend. The Saints dropped two sets to three against Bacone College in Muskogee and won in three sets over Langston. The Saints end the regular season with a 9-4 record in the Red River Athletic Conference and 14-10 overall. Bacone finishes with a 9-4 conference and 19-10 overall record, while Langston drops to 3-10 in the conference and 7-16 overall.
The University of Texas at Brownsville ends the season as the top seed in the conference and in the NAIA with a 13-0 conference and 29-0 overall record. Wiley College (11-2/20-12) is the second seed in the conference, while Bacone is the third and OLLU is the fourth. The conference tournament will begin on Nov. 8 in Brownsville. OLLU will be matched up against No. 5-seeded University of St. Thomas and will play at noon. The winner of that match will play the semifinals match at 5:30 p.m., and the championship match will take place on Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Read more online.
The men’s basketball opened its season this weekend at the Small College Tip-Off Classic. The NAIA’s No. 24-ranked Saints lost 103-95 to the NAIA’s No. 9-ranked Evangel University and 87-84 to St. Gregory’s University. The Saints will go back on the road to Fort Worth on Nov. 6 to play Texas Wesleyan University in a nonconference game at 7:30 p.m. OLLU will host its next game on Nov. 15 against MidAmerican Nazarene University at 7:30 p.m. Read more online.
The men’s soccer team ended its season last week after losing 1-0 to the University of the Southwest in the Red River Athletic Conference quarterfinals match. The fourth-seeded Saints finished the year with an overall record of 11-4-1 and a conference record of 4-2-1. Southwest, the fifth seeded team, will advance to the conference’s semifinals round on Nov. 8 in Houston. The Mustangs record is 6-8 overall and 4-3 in the conference. Read more online.
For the first time in school history, the women’s soccer team won the Red River Athletic Conference regular season and finished undefeated with a 6-0 conference record. The Saints beat Huston-Tillotson University 2-0 on Saturday evening to clinch the title. The team is the No. 1 seed the in the conference tournament. The first round begins this Friday with the No. 3-seed University of the Southwest (3-2-1/6-7-1) hosting No. 6-seed Texas College (1-5/4-10-2). No. 4-seed Huston-Tillotson (3-2-1/4-7-2) will host No. 5-seed Bacone College (2-4/6-10). Then on Nov. 8, the Saints (6-0/14-2-1) and the University of Texas at Brownsville (5-1/11-3) will play the winners of the Nov. 1 games. The semifinals and championship match, which will take place on Nov. 9, will be held at the Houston Amateur Sports Park in Houston. Read more online.
The men’s soccer team finished the regular season in third place after beating Huston-Tillotson University 5-2. The Saints (4-2-1/11-3-1) will host No. 6-seed University of the Southwest (3-4/4-9) on Friday, Nov. 1, at 1 p.m. No. 4-seed Huston-Tillotson (4-3/5-8-2) will host No. 5-seed Wiley College (3-2-2/7-4-3) on Friday, as well. The winners of those two games will advance to the semifinals on Nov. 8 and will face either No. 1-seed University of St. Thomas (6-1/11-3-2) or No. 2-seed University of Texas at Brownsville (5-1-1/12-2-2). The winners of the semifinals will play the championship match on Saturday, Nov. 9. These games will take place at the Houston Amateur Sports Park in Houston. Read more online.
The men’s basketball program is in its fifth season, and with just four returning players, the Saints will have an almost entirely new team entering the court, a situation the team has not faced since the start of the program in 2009. The Saints finished last season with an 18-13 overall record and a 14-8 record in the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC). As the No. 4 seed in the conference, the Saints lost to Texas Wesleyan University, 101-92, in the tournament’s quarterfinal. The Saints have qualified for the playoffs all four years. According to head coach Russell Vanlandingham, the conference had many quality teams last year, with two of them finishing in the top four at the NAIA National Tournament. Read more online.
The Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) cross-country teams participated in the Mid-States NAIA Classic on Saturday, and according to Coach Stephen Sherman, the teams played their best meet ever. “Whereas the meet at UIW was perhaps collectively our worst meet ever, this one was for sure collectively our best meet ever. After the result at UIW, I challenged this group to step up, and they did it with emphasis. It was fun to watch, and I could tell the result was enjoyable for them. All of them ran this race masterfully, and it should give them much needed confidence headed into the conference meet in two weeks.” Read more online.
