Sports Roundup: Fall Sports Season Begins For Knights

A number of teams from St. Michael-Albertville High School began their fall sports season last week, with more set to start this week.

Knights Cross-Country

The STMA cross-country teams were off and running on Monday at the Milaca-Mora Early Bird Invitational.

With three top-10 finishes, the Knights boys won the meet with 51 points—far ahead of No. 2 Cambridge-Isanti with 92 points.

Brendan Sage took fourth with a 5,000-meter time of 17 minutes, 22.5 seconds, with Dominic Shovelain in sixth with 18:18.7 and Alex Johnson in 10th in 18:41.8.

Chase Cayo (18:49.4) was 14th, Matt Eiynck (18:51.4) was 17th to account for the rest of the team's score.

Buoyed by a fourth-place finish of 15:46.3 by Maddi Sjelin and an 11th-place run of 16:07.1 by Presley Norby, the STMA girls finished third with 120 points on the 3,000-meter course—behind Monticello (23 points) and Albany (105).

Knights Boys Soccer

A second-place finish in the Irondale Tournament got the STMA boys soccer team off on the right boot as the Knights topped Woodbury's East Ridge, 1-0, on an Ivan Adika goal in the opening game last Friday.

However, without Adika, who broke his collarbone in the closing moments of the East Ridge game, the Knights lost 3-1 to Henry Sibley in the title game on Saturday. Tanner Gilligan scored STMA's lone goal on an assist from Kevin Daleiden.

The Knights opened their home schedule on Monday with a 9-2 thumping of Robbinsdale Cooper at Community Ed Field.

STMA begins play in the Orono Tournament against Waconia's Holy Family Catholic on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Knights Girls Tennis

By far the most active of the STMA squads thus far, the Knights girls tennis team sits at 5-1 on the season after putting together a successful first week of autumn.

STMA opened the year by hosting a quadrangular meet and going 2-1 on the day on Monday, Aug. 22. 

The Knights defeated Park Center (4-3) and St. Cloud Apollo (5-2) while losing to Annandale (4-3).

Following that fully-packed day of tennis, the STMA netters then took on a trio of dual matches and sweeping them all, defeating Osseo (4-3) last Wednesday, Spring Lake Park (7-0) last Thursday and Anoka (6-1) on Monday.

The Knights host Totino-Grace at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Knights Girls Soccer

The STMA girls soccer team is 1-1 on the season after finishing third in the Irondale Tournament last week.

The Knights lost the tourney opener in overtime, 3-2, to East Ridge on Friday, then came back to take the third-place game by a 4-2 score over their hosts on Saturday.

Andrea Boisner and Jessica Johnson lead the squad with two goals apiece, with Johnson also adding a pair of assists. Goalkeeper MiCale Jensen has made 20 saves on 23 shots faced through two games.

Knights Volleyball

The STMA volleyball team began the autumn triumphantly with a five-game win over visiting Moorhead last Saturday. 

The Knights built a two-game lead before the Spuds rallied to force a fifth game that was won by the hosts to clinch a 25-13, 27-25, 14-25, 24-26, 15-8 victory.

Individual statistics were not available. STMA hosts Sauk Rapids-Rice on Tuesday at 7 p.m.