It was a busy weekend for LA Tech teams as men’s golf, volleyball and soccer all competed.
Golf
Sam Murphy fired a four-under-par 68 on Sunday to lead the Bulldogs in the first round of the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate hosted at Squire Creek Golf Course.
The second round of the event starts at 7:30 a.m. today while Tuesday’s final round will start at 8 a.m.
As a team, the Bulldogs shot a two-under-par 286 and sit in a tie for fifth place in the 21-team event which boasts 119 competitors.
Murphy is tied with LSU’s Drew Doyle for second place while Lamar’s Kevin Lee leads the individual competition after an opening-round 67.
“It was good,” said Tech head coach Matt Terry. “We’re definitely different than we were last year. There were big points in the round that could’ve gone the other way, and it didn’t. The guys didn’t allow it. They battled back on the second nine, and it felt like they really matured today. It was a good step in the right direction. We have a long way to go this year, but it was a good step today.”
Hunter Battles and James Swash both shot even-par 72’s for Tech.
Houston (284) leads the event while Little Rock, LSU and Southern Miss (285) are all tied for second. Tech and Troy (286) are tied for fifth with 36 holes to play.
Soccer
The Lady Techsters had a successful weekend on the pitch at the Robert Mack Caruthers Soccer Complex, defeating Sam Houston State (4-0) and Little Rock (2-1) this weekend.
Tech snapped a three-match scoreless streak with the Friday night win over Sam Houston State as the Lady Techsters scored three first half goals and coasted to the victory.
“We committed ourselves to our style of play and having a good home weekend,” said interim head coach Steve Voltz. “The physical commitment this weekend by the team really showed up. Whether they played zero minutes or 90 minutes, everybody played a part in this. It was a complete team effort.”
Anna Loftus, Lauren Egboloniu, Morgan Miller and Autumn Woodard all scored for Tech in the win over the Bearkats.
Sunday afternoon’s match was a little tighter but first half goals by Carmen Suarez and Marcela Gallo proved to be the difference for Tech (4-3-1).
“We rotated players on Friday quite a bit and today was the same strategy,” said Voltz. “We played a strong, physical team today in Little Rock so far us it was speed of play, using our technical ability and trying to keep our legs fresh. We were able to see the game out.”
Tech travels to Birmingham Thursday to open Conference USA action against UAB.
Volleyball
It was a difficult weekend for the Lady Techsters who dropped all three matches at the Fight in the Fort hosted by TCU in Ft. Worth.
Tech fell 3-0 to the host Horned Frogs, 3-1 to North Florida and then lost a tough five-set match 3-2 to Houston Baptist.
“Today is so tough because I feel like the losses don’t reflect how hard our team battled,” said Tech head coach Amber McCray following the final two losses of the tournament. “We went toe-to-toe with a very good, experienced UNF team who plays with a ton of confidence. Then lined up less than 30 minutes later to face another talented and well-rounded team in HBU.
“It’s heartbreaking to lose in five because I know we had chances to close this last one out, but this team essentially played nine sets in a row and yet still played them all hard. We can build on that kind of heart, and we will as we bounce back in our final week of preseason.”
Tech travels to ULM Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. match before hosting the LA Tech Invitational Thursday through Saturday at the Thomas Assembly Center.
