Aces travel to Sevierville, Tenn.

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Spring action commences this weekend for the University of Evansville men’s golf team when they travel to Sevierville, Tenn. for the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate.

Running from Sunday through Tuesday, the tournament features 18 holes each day with tee times starting at 8:30 a.m. ET.  The River Course at the Sevierville Golf Club will be the host for the event.  Par is set for 72 and the yardage is 6,891.

This year’s field includes Alabama A&M, Bellarmine, Belmont, Chicago State, Christian Brothers, Cleveland State, Delta State, Detroit Mercy, Evansville, Lee, Morehead State, Northern Kentucky, Southern Indiana, Tennessee State and host Tennessee Tech.  West Virginia will have individuals competing.

Evansville last competed in the fall at the Lehigh University Invitational.  Daniil Romashkin was the top finisher for the Purple Aces, coming home in 11^th place in a tournament highlighted by an even par of 72 in the opening round.

As a team, the Aces finished in 6^th place out of 13 participants.  Prior to that event, UE was in Murray, Ky. for The Buddy.  With a team score of 856, Evansville came home in second place in the team standings while Carson Parker was the runner-up on the individual side.

Squads to meet up Friday through Sunday

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Looking to keep the momentum rolling after an extra inning walk-off win on Wednesday, the University of Evansville softball team plays host to Valparaiso for a 3-game weekend series at Tri-State Orthopaedics Field and James and Dorothy Cooper Stadium.  The teams will play a 3-game series Friday through Sunday.

Evansville opened its Missouri Valley Conference slate against Indiana State earlier this week, splitting a pair of games.  After the Sycamores won the opener, the Purple Aces staged a furious rally to take Wednesday’s game by a 6-5 final.  Lacy Smith had a pair of clutch RBI hits that sealed the win.  Her single in the bottom of the 6^th tied the game at 3-3.

Following a scoreless 7^th frame, Indiana State plated two runs to take the lead in the top of the 8^th.  Marah Wood led the bottom half of the 8^th with a home run to left field.  Brooke Voss reached on a walk before moving to third on a double by Abby Bode.  Smith came to the plate and delivered once again, sending Evansville to the 6-5 walk-off win.

Sydney Weatherford made the start, allowing three runs in four innings.  Megan Brenton earned the win, tossing the final four frames with two runs, one earned, crossing the plate.

Valparaiso comes to Evansville with a 6-15 record.  Last Saturday, the Beacons earned a -5 win over Rider.  This will mark the first MVC game for Valpo.  They are led by Kam Utendorf, who is hitting .438 with 21 hits and eight runs scored.

MATTOON, Ill. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers earned their spot in the NJCAA Division I Region 24 Championship game for the second year in a row. Waiting for them was a familiar foe in No. 2-ranked Wabash Valley College.

The Lady Blazers fought hard throughout the game but unfortunately came up on the wrong end of a 95-79 final score.

Vincennes did not get off to a good start Thursday night at Lake Land College, with Wabash Valley quickly jumping ahead of VU 6-0 early in the first quarter.

After a timeout to settle things down, the Lady Blazers would answer back with an 8-2 run of their own to even the score at 8-8.

Wabash Valley would counter with a 10-3 run and close out the first quarter outscoring VU 11-5 to take a 19-13 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

The Lady Warriors added on to their lead in the second quarter, opening the second period by outscoring VU 17-9 to take a 43-22 lead.

Play was halted briefly as severe weather in the area of Mattoon Thursday night caused a 15-minute weather delay with under a minute to go in the first half.

After play resumed the two teams traded baskets to head into the halftime break with the Lady Trailblazers trailing Wabash Valley 45-29.

VU looked to have their best run at Wabash Valley to start the second half, with VU freshman Makyla Tucker (Indianapolis, Ind.) scoring eight straight points for VU as the Blazers cut the Lady Warriors lead down to 51-39.

Wabash Valley would get their lead back up to 19 later in the third quarter, but the Lady Blazers again refused to go away as Vincennes cut the deficit to 71-55 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

Vincennes started to get the crowd behind them in the fourth quarter and were able to ride the momentum to getting within 12 points of Wabash Valley, before the Lady Warriors responded with a 10-2 scoring run.

VU again looked to gain some traction with six unanswered points but were unfortunately stopped by six unanswered for Wabash Valley.

The Lady Warriors were able to run the clock down the stretch with VU Hall of Fame Head Coach electing to play the final minutes with all five of his sophomores on the floor as Wabash Valley closed out the 95-79 victory over VU.

The Lady Trailblazers were led Thursday night by a monster double-double by sophomore Elikya Baseyila (Paris, France) who finished with 19 points and 18 rebounds, including 15 points coming in the second half of play.

Freshman Makyla Tucker came off the bench to 13 points, 11 of which coming in the second half.

Freshman Destinee Hooks (Indianapolis, Ind.) had to battle some tough defense all night and still almost came away with a double-double, ending her night with 13 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Freshman Karina Scott (Noblesville, Ind.) was the fourth VU scorer in double figures, getting the VU offense going early to score 10 of her 13 points in the first half, while also picking up a pair of steals.

Sophomore Maycee Lange (Vincennes, Ind.) came off the bench to hit all three of her shot attempts to finish with six points, while fellow sophomores Katrina Litte (Valmiera, Latvia) and Brie Miller (Bainbridge, Ind.) ended with five points and four points respectively.

Litte would also lead the Lady Blazers with six assists, while Miller grabbed five rebounds and tied Hooks for the team-high three steals on the night.

Thursday night’s loss likely ends the season for the Lady Trailblazers with a final record of 19-11, including winning 16 of their last 20 games of the season.

The loss also spells the end of the VU careers of the Lady Trailblazers’ five sophomores, Elikya Baseyila, Maycee Lange, Brie Miller, Katrina Litte and Najra Voloder (Konjic, Bosnia).

This sophomore group closed out their two seasons in the Blue and Gold with a final record of 40-22 and back-to-back runner up finishes in the Region 24 tournament.