DANVILLE, Va. — With Averett University's fall sports teams deep into practices and/or intrasquad scrimmages, many of Averett's spring sports teams just began practicing. For spring teams that saw their 2020 seasons halted abruptly, coaches and their teams have been excited to return to action.

"The excitement level is through the roof right now," baseball head coach Kenny Fleming said. "Everybody has been waiting since March to get back out here — coaches included."

Women's lacrosse head coach Kelly Ryan agreed.

"It's been awesome getting back onto the field. … It's been a lot of fun seeing them excel along the way," she said. "It feels like we kind of picked back up from our games and practices in March."

Men's lacrosse coach Anthony Mackin said his players have been amped up to return to the field.

"We just finished up our second week of practice and the guys have come out on fire and fired up," Mackin said. "It's been a long seven months since we had to leave."

Spring teams will practice and possibly hold intrasquad scrimmages. Men's golf is looking to hold a team event similar to the Ryder Cup format since the roster of eight includes four Americans and four international student-athletes. Averett's men's and women's tennis programs will also be holding a competitive tournament within the team.
  DEEP IMPACT: First-year head coach Meghan Mauzy-Fleming has enjoyed having a tremendous amount of depth on her women's soccer roster thanks to a large incoming class. She will look to use that to her advantage.

"I truly am going to have a hard time making the final decisions for the starting lineup," Mauzy-Fleming said. "More than likely the starting lineup will be somewhat different each game. We have so many girls with different strengths and equal talent."

With their next scrimmage a week away, Mauzy-Fleming said the Cougars have been working on the timing of their transitions, both on attack and defensive.

"Both teams were slow to transition, creating large gaps between our lines of play," Mauzy-Fleming said following the team's first scrimmage on Sept. 11.
  TIME TRIALS: Men's and women's cross country completed its first block of training this week with a 5K time trial, the first of several they will do this fall.

"From the results that have come in, I am very happy with them," first-year head coach Hayden Rader said. "We have lots of room for improvement, but the team has put in a lot of hard work and their times have shown that."
  TRIPLE H: Men's soccer has adopted a "Triple H" slogan this year — Hungry, Healthy, Humble. Head coach Philip Wilson said the team has really bought into the concept.
"The team culture this year is unbelievable, they all want to work extremely hard and push each other every day on and off the field," he said.

Men's soccer plays its third intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday at 7 p.m. Wilson said the team has been working on several things this week in preparation.

"I think both teams have been creating some excellent goal scoring opportunities in the last two matches but haven't quite been able to finish off the opportunities," Wilson said. "The offense has looked clinical in practice this week so I am looking for both teams to be a little more composed in front of goal this weekend and finish more of the opportunities created."
  ROTATE: The Averett volleyball team host their third intrasquad scrimmage of the fall on Saturday at noon. Head coach Danny Miller has been excited with his teams play as they have brought the competitive edge needed to create the game-like atmosphere. Miller is again making changes to the rosters for Saturday to change the balance of the teams and allow different players to work with others they haven't teamed with yet.

"Switching teams around gives me a great opportunity to watch who can mesh well together," Miller said.

  NEW KICKS: With All-American punter/kicker Cole Westberry now departed, Averett football special teams coordinator Dustin Beck has been focusing on building depth at the position this fall with one returning kicker and several newcomers.

"We have not gotten as many full team reps with special teams as we would like but with the small groups, we could focus on certain sides of the field which helped us work on fundamentals," Beck said. "Also, this has given us a closer look and more one-on-one time with those young specialists."