Staff report
Murray State athletics are gearing up for Family Weekend, with the Racers set to compete in six sporting events starting Friday night.
Racer volleyball will kick off the weekend, starting their OVC schedule as well as playing their first home match of the season. Murray State is coming off a 1-2 record last weekend at the Billiken Invitational in St. Louis. The Racers have played a non-conference schedule up to this point, coming out with a record of 5-7. Murray State is the reigning OVC Regular Season Champion and suffered a loss in the OVC Tournament Championship at the hands of Belmont in 2015. The Racers will take on UT Martin at 7 p.m. Friday at Racer Arena, and will be back in action at 2 p.m. Saturday at Racer Arena against Southeast Missouri State. After this weekend, the Racers will be back in action at 7 p.m. Tuesday Sept. 27 at Racer Arena, where they will host Austin Peay State.
Racer football will look to put a 0-3 start behind them, as they will also host Southeast Missouri State. SEMO is 0-3 as well and is coming off a loss in which it led by 11 in the fourth quarter, only to lose 27-24 at the hands of Indiana State. Murray State struggled against Missouri Valley Conference opponent Southern Illinois last week, losing 50-17 on the road. The Racers have played the University of Illinois, losing 52-3 and Missouri State, at home, losing 28-22. Kickoff for the game is set at 6 p.m. at Stewart Stadium.
Also at the football game Racer Band will perform before, at halftime and throughout the entire football game.
Sunday morning will start with a bang as the No. 2 ranked rifle team in the country will host No. 19 UT Martin at the Pat Spurgin Rifle Range. The Racers are lead by nine-year head coach and three-year Coach of the Year Alan Lollar. Junior Ivan Roe from Manhattan, Montana, also leads Murray State, who came just a few points shy of making the U.S. Olympic Team. The match between top 20 teams the will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday.
Murray State softball started its fall season last week with a doubleheader against the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Southern . The Racers finished the doubleheader 1-1 with a 4-0 win over UMSL and a 1-0 loss at the hands of SIU. The Racers will come home this weekend and play a double header, Sunday against Union University. The first game will begin at 1 p.m. with the second game slated for 3 p.m. This will be the first of three doubleheaders hosted at Racer Field this fall.
The Racer soccer team will begin its run to defend their OVC Regular Season Title and their OVC Tournament Title at 1 p.m. at Cutchin Field. Murray State will host Morehead State in the team’s first OVC match of the season. Last season, the Racers finished with a perfect, 10-0 OVC record to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. They then went on to sweep the tournament to claim the crown in Head Coach Jeremy Groves second season at the helm. Murray State may have to finish the season without senior midfielder Lyssie Wright as she suffered a knee injury in the 5-0 loss at the University of Kentucky. After this weekend’s game, the Racers will travel to SEMO, Friday Sept. 30 and then travel to UT Martin Oct. 2 for a two-game road stint.