RU recruits at AAU
Incoming Radford University volleyball freshmen Grace Green and Taylor Moore finished up strong performances in the 45th AAU Girls Junior National Championships held in Orlando, Fla.
Green served as the starting libero for Sports Performance 18 Kahl (IL), leading the squad to the 18 Premier Championship, not losing a set in the R4Gold bracket.
Playing for Southern Performance National Julie (AL), Moore finished runner-up in the 18 Classic Championship. The Birmingham, Ala., native also served as the starting libero for her team.
The duo makes up part of Marci Byers’ 2018 signing class of eight and the octet will begin their collegiate careers August 24 against Towson as the Highlanders open up the season in the Baltimore Bash.
Kasper, Kennedy advance in state tournament
Two Radford University men’s golfers, Peter Gasperini and Andrew Kennedy, have advanced to the semifinals of the Virginia State Golf Association Amateur Match Play.
Gasperini had never appeared in a match-play event before this week, but made one of the week’s biggest shots, an ace on hole 17 in the first round of stroke-play qualifying.
“I was hoping that wouldn’t be the highlight of my week,” Gasperini said of the hole-in-one. “So far, so good. Just still kind of plugging away. It’s actually my first match-play experience. Turns out, I really like match play.”
The junior defeated Teddy Zinsner, the 2017 VSGA Junior Stroke Play champion and rising Yale sophomore, 3 and 2 in the morning. He eliminated Erik Dulik, who just completed his career at Louisville, 4 and 3 in the second round.
Creighton recognize by VaSID
Myles Creighton’s Radford University resume continues to progress as he was named VaSID First Team All-State on Monday afternoon.
Although the graduated senior has played his last round of golf as a Highlander, he continues to have a standout career. The all-time scoring leader in program history became just the third player to be recognized with first team all-state honors.
The Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada native has finished inside the top 10 in 10 consecutive spring tournaments dating back to last season – including five this season. He was named to the Big South All-Conference Team and was named Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second time in two seasons. Not only is he the first Highlander to receive the awards consecutively, he is the first Highlander to ever receive the scholastic award.
Creighton was recently named to the Virginia State Golf Coaches Association Second Team. He was the first player to be recognized by the VSGCA since 2013. Creighton is also the first player to compete at Radford and garner back-to-back VaSID honors as he was recognized with second team honors a season ago.
