This Week in Athletics: October 21

Greetings #TARnation!

Mother Nature has graced us with some fall weather, shout out Mother Nature. No more time for chit chat, we have A LOT to go over:

-Another year, another National Championship for junior Charlie Ross. The Canadian native secured his third consecutive gold medal in men's slalom at the NCWSA Collegiate Nationals last weekend, winning with a run of 4.5 buoys at 41.5 off. For those not up on waterksi lingo ... that's really, really hard to do! Other standouts included Hannah Stopnicki (Silver in women's tricks for the second straight year), Kamil Belmrah (4th in men's slalom), and Ines Sole (4th in women's slalom). As a team, the Tars finished 4th overall, marking the twelfth straight year that head coach Marc Bedsole has led the team to a Top 6 finish. Incredible. 

-Men's soccer had an epic comeback last Wednesday, down 3-1 before storming back to defeat Nova Southeastern 4-3. Finlay Prain scored twice, Julian Hernandez had a highlight reel strike for his first career goal, and Shota Fukinishi had the game winner in the 80th minute. Check out the highlights here! Prain also added two more goals in the road game at Eckerd on Saturday, helping him earn SSC Offensive Player of the Week. 

-Men's golf ended their fall slate with a 4th place finish at the Citrus Intercollegiate, held at Championsgate Golf club in Orlando. Mick Herron was the top performer, posting a 218 (+2) across three rounds to finish in fourth on the individual board. The Tars finished 5th or better in all four of their fall events, and will enter the spring as the #16 team in the country. 

-Both tennis teams were in Lakeland to participate in the ITA South Regional. On the men's side, Noe Milliard and Pete Tran each made it a couple of rounds into the bracket before falling. For the ladies, both doubles teams won their opening round before bowing out in the second. Lorin Tilipman was the top singles performer, winning a pair of matches on the winner's side before losing in the third round. 

-Women's soccer suffered a pair of losses, on the road Wednesday at Nova Southeastern and at home Saturday versus Eckerd. Lauren Mehos was incredibly active in goal, tying a Rollins program record with 12 saves against the Sharks, and following that with a 10-save performance against the Tritons. As stated in her Senior Day read before Saturday's match, Mehos will end her Rollins career ranking third all-time in saves and shutouts. Other seniors honored before Saturday's game were Carolina Ameglio, Allie Adams, Harmoni Thomas, Victoria Pou Varona, and Gabby Boyd. Congrats and thank you to the senior class!

-Women's golf was busy busy this weekend. They headed north to Chapel Hill to play in UNC's Tar Hell Invitational Friday-Sunday, and then entered Virginia to participate in Richmond's Spider Invitational on Monday and Tuesday. In both tournaments, Rollins was the only non-Division I team playing. Sarah Knitter was the top performer at UNC, finishing 45th overall. At Richmond, the Tars finished seventh as a team, and saw Youyang Li tie for 9th on the individual leaderboard. 

-Volleyball dropped a pair of conference road games, losing 3-1 at Floria Tech and 3-0 at #11 Barry. Kayla Goodloe continued her strong season with 23 kills across the two matches. 

-Sailing finished 6th of 17 fleets at the Atlantic Coast Tournament over the weekend, hosted by Navy in Annapolis, Maryland. Annie Samis and Mollie Wood combined for five top 10 finishes, including a win in the eighth race. Samis also teamed up with Jane McKenzie, and added an additional five Top 10s, highlighted by a third-place effort in the opening race. Samis was recently selected to participate in the ICSA Women's Singlehanded National Championship on November 7-8, becoming the first Tar ever selected for the prestigious race. Congrats to Annie!

-Swimming was in Tampa on Saturday for a SSC tri-meet featuring Tampa and Barry. The Tars took second in the event on both the men's and women's side. The Tars had all sorts of names scattered across the Top 5 in each race, including strong efforts from Noah Smith, Cooper Wiese, Alexa Kwarcinski, and Reese Vetor. 



- Men's soccer (5-5-2) will kick off a busy week with their Senior Night on Wednesday against Florida Tech (8-3-3), starting at 6pm. The Tars are currently tied for fourth in the SSC standings, so this is a big one for the lads. On Saturday, they are headed across state lines to the Peach State to face North Georgia (9-2-5) at noon. The Nighthawks were ranked as high as #2 in the country earlier this season, so should be a fun one!

- Women's soccer (6-6-1) will have their hands full at #1 Florida Tech (10-0-5) on Wednesday. Last year, Rollins had the reinging national champs on the ropes, leading 2-0 late before falling 3-2. They will look to exact revenge on the Panthers at their place tonight! The ladies will then wrap up the regular season on Tuesday with a visit to Saint Leo to take on the Lions (5-6-0). 

- Tennis will host Eastern Florida State, Southeastern University, and New College of Florida this weekend at the annual Varner Invitational. The hidden dual format will have the Tars playing different opponents each day in both singles and doubles on the men's and women's side. Matches will be happening all day, all weekend long, so be sure to stop by the Tennis & Golf Center on campus to check out the action!

- Volleyball (10-12) is set to host not one, not two, but three SSC home games this week. It all starts Friday against Florida Southern (10-9) at 7pm. This one is special as the Tars host their annual Dig Pink came, which helps raise money and awarness for breast cancer research. The ladies will be wearing custom pink jerseys that will be auctioned off online after the game! Saturday will see the #3 Tampa Spartans (19-1) head to Winter Park, followed by Palm Beach Atlantic (11-10) on Tuesday. 

- Sailing will be on the crisp, blue waters of Lake Virginia this weekend as they host a number of fleets from around the southeast. The two day event will begin around 9am on both Saturday and Sunday. 

- Swimming is in the thick of their SSC schedule as they welcome the Nova Southeastern Sharks to Winter Park on Saturday. The Tars are ranked #21 on the men's side, and will face a tough opponent in the #10 Sharks. The women have an even taller task, as Nova claims the #1 spot in the CSCAA poll currently. 

- Women's golf has one final event on their fall schedule, the Flagler Fall Slam. Rollins is the defending champion of the tournament, besting 11 other programs last year with an impressive 870 that was five shots better than the runner-up. 

- Men's basketball opens their 2026-27 campaign on Sunday with an exhibition at Addition Financial Arena, home of the UCF Knights. Though the Tars are D-II and the Knights are in the Big 12, these two teams have plenty of history; did you know that UCF started off as a member of the Sunshine State Conference? In 42 matchups between the two schools, UCF holds a 25-17 edge. They last played in 2006, with UCF squeaking out an 83-80 victory over the Tars. In that game, current head coach Kevin Hogan had an efficient 14 minutes of floor time to the tune of five points, two rebounds, and two steals! Admission is free for this one, so grab your roommates, professors, and anyone else you can think of and head east to Oviedo on Sunday for a great matchup!
 

The annual Tars Cup Challenge is underway! At the time of posting, we have already received more than $110,000 in funds from over 300 donors! Incredible! You have until Friday at 11:59pm to make a tax-deductible donation. And remember, you choose which Rollins team your money goes to! Those willing to make a donation (of any size!) can do so here. Thank you for your support #TARnation!

A reminder for all of our fans that admission to any Rollins home game is ABSOLUTELY FREE, so be sure to show up and show out for your Tars! If you can't make it in person, you can always follow the action with our FREE LIVESTREAM 

The Tars are proud to partner with Orlando Health, the official medical team for Rollins athletics. From award winning facilities to the best care in Central Florida, Orlando Health has all of your medical needs covered. Thank you to Orlando Health for their support of #TARnation! 

-Tommy Tar
#TARnation