Mount Vernon Nazarene University athletes Morgan Forney, Garrett Gemmaka and Paige Brenner each earned Crossroads League honors last week.
Forney and Gemmaka were each named Runner of the Week in women’s and men’s cross country and Brenner took home Setter of the Week in women’s volleyball.
Forney earned her honor after a 24-place finish out of 104 runners at the Cedarville Open on Sept. 26. The Cougars finished third out of the six teams in the open.
Gemmaka won his honor after he finished 21st out of 105 runners at Cedarville to help the men’s team finish second out of five teams.
Brenner averaged 7.7 assists and added 2.8 digs per set over two matches for the Cougar women’s volleyball team last week. MVNU won back-to-back straight-set matches against Goshen and Spring Arbor last week.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
MVNU rallied in the fourth set to tie things up, but Taylor took the fifth to win a 19-25, 25-16, 25-16, 22-25, 15-11 decision in Crossroads League play on Sept. 29 in Upland.
Brenner dished out 41 assists and added 10 digs, Nicole Winkler and Ashley Stumper had 14 kills apiece and Ellie Ruby had 30 digs to lead the Cougars (3-4, 3-4).
Molly Galaszewski had 13 digs, Winkler added 12 digs, Casey Bunner had 10 digs and Mary Kate Harmody had eight kills and 4.5 blocks for MVNU.
Amanda Adams had 19 kills and 14 digs, Kacy Bragg had 50 assists and 13 digs, Erin Peugh had 23 digs and Grace Isaacs 14 kills and three blocks to lead the Trojans (3-6, 3-5).
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Alexa Skal continued her dominance this season with a pair of goals to lead the Cougars to a 3-0 win at Huntington in Crossroads League play on Sept. 30.
Skal scored just over 10 minutes into the game thanks to a feed from Adison Preston. Skal scored her second goa of the game, unassisted, in the 22nd minute and Ashley Townsend smoothed out the scoring with an unassisted goal in the 88th minute.
Lilly Jakuszewski had two saves in goal for the Cougars (3-2-1, 2-2-1).
Riley Voss stopped five shot and Maddy Moan two in goal for the Foresters (0-2-1, 0-2-1).
MEN’S SOCCER
Hunter Jackson scored the game’s only goal to help Huntington beat MVNU in Crossroads League play on Sept. 30 in Mount Vernon.
Jackson’s goal came unassisted in the 17th minute.
Josua Dunn had three saves for the Cougars (3-3, 3-2) and Gabe Greenfield stopped two shots for the Foresters (3-0-2, 3-0-2).
CROSS COUNTRY
Four Cougars on the men’s cross country team placed in the top 10 at the Huntington Invitational on Oct. 2 in Huntington. But it wasn’t enough to overcome the host Foresters, who had six runners in the top 10 including first- and second-place.
Gemmaka ran a time of 25:47.5 to finish third out of 78 runners, leading the Cougars.
He finished behind Huntington’s Adrien Gentie (25:07.6) and Kent Yoder (25:44.1), who placed first and second.
The Foresters scored 19 points to win the eight-team event with MVNU (45) finishing second.
Justis Paul (sixth, 26:08.4), Sam Swanger (27:20.5) and Clayton Slemmons (27:22.5) led the Cougars.
The MVNU women’s team (52) also finished second to host Huntington (24) in a six-team race.
Forney ran a time of 19:05.0 to finish fourth out of 67 runners behind Huntington’s Emma Wilson (17:13.2).
Macy Krasofsky (19:26.0) was also solid for the Cougars with a seventh-place finish.
