As weekend plans are made, excitement for the upcoming Thanksgiving break heightens, and ventures home are commencing, several athletic teams will be representing Union at games and championship meets.
The mens’ and women’s basketball teams both have games on Saturday, Nov. 22. At 2 p.m., the Lady Bulldogs will play at home against Tennessee Temple University, and the men will play Stillman College in Huntsville, Alabama at 1 p.m.
Then on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 2 p.m. the men’s team will play Benedict College.
Trever Lydic, the assistant men’s basketball coach, is excited about this weekend, and is hopeful that the team can “build off of the two wins from this past weekend.” He and the David Niven, the head men’s basketball coach, are very proud of the team they have this year.
Niven said that the past couple of years, the goal has been to build the team for this year, red-shirting some players, so that the first year of post-season play eligibility in the NCAA, they would be ready.
“We talk a lot as a team about what it means to be excellent, and this is another opportunity for us to go out and show this,” Lydic said. “If we are excellent then the score will take care of itself. We have very talented players and now we have to take that talent and turn it into a talented team.”
Niven said that he wants the team to gain consistency. “We played our first two games over this passed weekend, and we did a lot of things well. But, we also have things to work on.”
Amy Philamlee, a senior exercise science major and guard for the Lady Bulldogs, said the women’s team also has to work on some things, but “being together on the court is the best way to do that.”
Also this weekend, the mens’ and women’s cross country teams will travel to Huntsville, Alabama, competing in the NCAA South Region Championships.
“I’m really excited about regionals because this is our first year that we actually get to compete” said Anna McKelvey, a junior elementary education major and member of the cross country team. “It’s definitely an honor to be a part of the first ever cross country team to compete at regionals, and qualifying for nationals would really just be the icing on the cake.”
In order to qualify for nationals, the men’s and women’s team will have to place in the top three at the regional tournament.
For more information about the events this weekend visit www.uuathletics.com.
