Last year, Piedmont was extremely successful in conference play, including its inaugural year in the Collegiate Conference of the South. This fall, women’s soccer, women’s swim and women’s cross country will defend their titles, and men’s soccer, volleyball and men’s cross country will push for gold.
Women’s soccer and volleyball both played Wesleyan College in their first conference games at the end of September. Women’s soccer won convincingly, 8-1, and volleyball swept the Wolves 3-0. Volleyball’s performance earned three players a clean sweep of all CCS weekly awards for week two of the season.
Women’s soccer have played two more conference games since then, dropping 3-0 away versus Belhaven University and beating Agnes Scott College at home 2-0. Volleyball stayed strong in conference after sweeping Maryville College and beating Belhaven 3-1 in a tri-match on Sept. 23.
Volleyball sits in second place in the CCS behind Covenant, and women’s soccer sits in third.
Men’s and women’s swim dove into their season, both with emphatic victories versus Point University. Freshmen and returners alike placed high in their first races of the season. The men won 177-67 and are shooting for their first championship in the program’s short history. The women won 177-45 and will be shooting for a second consecutive Independent South Conference championship.
Men’s and women’s cross country have both competed in two meets so far in their season and won’t run in the conference championship races until October 28th in Tallulah Falls. Two standout performers are seniors Gary Halverson and Jaycie Ponce. Halverson has finished first on his team in both of their meets this season and broke the 6K Piedmont Record with a 19:01.8. Ponce, 2023 NCAA Division III Woman of the Year nominee, broke the Piedmont University 4K record (16:40.6) in her first meet of the season.
Men’s soccer was the last team to start their conference run on Saturday, September 30th against Berea College. The Lions won 5-2 with five different goal scorers, and freshman Davis Knight has been a star, earning the CCS Rookie of the Week award three times.
It’s been a strong start for the Lions across all sports, and they’ll look to push for gold at the end of the fall. Keep up with all fall sports and their seasons on piedmontlions.com.
