The equestrian team at the University of Lynchburg went back to back on Saturday when it claimed the National Collegiate Equestrian Association single discipline national championship.
The Hornets trailed 3-1 after the fences portion of the event, then completed the comeback on the flat and defeated Sweet Briar in a raw-score tiebreaker, 1,957 to 1,900.
The Hornets entered the national championship as the No. 2 seed, while Sweet Briar was seeded first. Lynchburg also won the title in 2022 and now has won two national championships in program history.
Emma Schweizer, Lucy Metzler and Fallyn Belcastro all earned points to help Lynchburg tie Sweet Briar 4-4 overall, which set up the Hornets to win the title based on the raw-score tiebreaker.
Sweet Briar outscored Lynchburg 3-1 over fences. But Lynchburg's raw score was 32 points higher than Sweet Briar's, mainly because of Schweizer's 41-point margin over fences. Lynchburg also posted a higher raw score on the flat, 944-925.
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This is Lynchburg's third season in the NCEA.
Lynchburg volleyball third in silver bracket at nationals
Appomattox graduate Mady Shirey helped the University of Lynchburg place third in the silver bracket of the American Volleyball Coaches Association small colleges beach volleyball national championship Sunday.
Lynchburg, in its inaugural year having a beach volleyball team, played in the silver bracket after losing its first match of the national championship to Hendrix (Arkansas) on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Hornets lost to Lake Sumter (Florida) 3-2 in the first match, then defeated East Texas Baptist 3-0 in the third-medal match.
Shirey and partner SJ Yantz won 21-19, 21-18 against Lake Sumter and also defeated their East Texas Baptist opponents 21-18, 21-13.
Lynchburg (12-20) has one more match remaining on its schedule. The Hornets play at Liberty on Friday at 5 p.m. Jefferson Forest graduate Heather Forton plays for the Flames.
Locals lead the way for Lynchburg softball
Carly Hudnall, a Rustburg grad who helped the Red Devils win a state title in 2021, continued her hot streak at the plate Monday by going 4 for 8 to help Lynchburg to a doubleheader split with No. 2 Christopher Newport.
Hudnall also tallied an RBI and two runs in a 2-for-4 showing that included a double in Game 2 at UL's Moon Field, an 8-2 win that gave UL its third victory over a ranked opponent on the year and atoned for a 4-0 loss to the Captains earlier in the day.
Appomattox grad Kaleigh Hackett went 3 for 3 with an RBI for the Hornets in the win, and Liberty High grad Gracie Dooley was 1 for 1 with a double in Game 1.
In Game 2 of Lynchburg's doubleheader sweep of visiting Eastern Mennonite on Sunday (8-0 and 12-4), Dooley went 3 for 4 with four RBIs, and Hudnall smacked her third triple of the year and drove in two runs.
Hackett had two hits and an RBI on the day for Lynchburg, which is now 20-14 overall and 8-6 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.