First and Ben

 By Ben Anderson      The start the fall semester officially marks the beginning of the Cross-Country season for the Marshall Thundering Herd.         The Thundering Herd enter the 2025 campaign following a successful season a year ago. Kylee Mastin became the first female runner in program history to win a conference title, capturing the Sun Belt Conference Championship. This was one of the multiple historic milestones in the past few seasons for the women’s team as Abby Herring became the program's first NCAA National Championship Qualifer in 2023.       The women’s team this season is led by the trio of returnees: senior Hannah Wyler sophomore Destiny Berryman, and graduate student transfer Maggie Froning. Wyler is coming off an incredible junior campaign, where she became a first-time Cross Country Sun Belt All-Conference member as a second team representative following her ninth-place finish at last season’s champio...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall women’s soccer took care of business in dominate fashion in a 9-0 victory against the UPike Bears on Saturday at Hoops Family Field in the teams’ Fans First Exhibition.       Hurricane native Bailey Fisher and newcomer Tiggi Gent led the way for the Herd with two goals apiece as The Herd held the Bears without a single shot.       The Herds’ stampede began at the opening gate, as it found the back of the net 30 seconds into the match as Fisher scored off an assist by Brooklyn McComas.       In the fourth minute, Larissa Ozorio added onto the score as she found the bottom center of the goal from an assist by Ami Komori to give the Herd a 2-0 lead.       McComas scored 15 minutes later as Geovanna Souza picked up her first of two assists. Souza drew UPike goalkeeper Neveah Brown out of the goal to give McComas the wide-open shot.      Marshall’s...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall Women’s Soccer welcomes the UPIKE Bears in a preseason Fans First Exhibition tomorrow at Hoops Family Field.      The Thundering Herd enters its fourth season in the Sun Belt Conference and second under head coach Rafa Simoes. UPIKE also known as the University of Pikeville, are members of the NAIA Appalachian Athletics Conference and led by first-year head coach Shane Taylor.       The two teams had opposite results a year ago. The Thundering Herd struggled as it finished 3-8-5. UPIKE had a historic season finishing with the second most wins in program history with 9 as it went 9-7-2. The Bears also picked up a program-best 6 wins in conference play, going 6-5-2, and concluding the season with the first ever to finish with winning a record both overall and in conference play.      Both teams had to revamp its rosters as the Thundering Herd lost 13 players, while UPIKE lost eight from a ...

 By Ben Anderson      Marshall Football has begun its first few days in full pads as it gets closer and closer to its season opener against the Georgia Bulldogs. Offensive Coordinator Rod Smith said that the offense after a slow start is starting to show signs of improvement.      “Well, it's been four good days some's better than others." Smith said in an interview with media members. "Yesterday was pretty rough. Today was a much better day for both sides to be honest with you. But we didn't play very well yesterday on offense, but today we came back, bounced back, proud of the effort, proud of them coming back and attacking the day and we made some steps today.”       With the season less than a month away, Smith said that fall camp is the pinnacle time for the team to adapt and limit the amount of errors before week one.      “These practices are like gold," Smith said. "So our guys have got to take each and every ...

 By Ben Anderson      The Tri-State Coal Cats officially concluded their second season in the Appalachian League following an road loss against the Kingsport Axmen.      The Coal Cats fell in their final game of the season in a brutal fashion, 16-0 in a seven-inning run-rule loss. The Axmen brought the offense early, scoring runs in the first four innings by scoring three in the first and second, six in the third, and four in the fourth to take the 16-0 lead.      Kingsport outhit Tri-State 13-3 in the contest. Kenneth Jackson took the loss to finish his season at 1-6 going 2.2 innings and allowing 9 runs, 8 earned runs, on 4 hits and 6 walks while striking out 2. Aidan Murphy picked up his first win of the season in relief for Kingsport as he went two innings of one hit baseball.  TRI-STATE 000 000 0XX – 0 3 1 KINGSPORT 336 400 XXX  – 16 13 0 Jackson, McIntosh (3), Sylvest (4), Lawrence (5), and Golden; Larkin, Murphy (4), Tow...