UK rifle completes third consecutive victory, beats Memphis
October 27, 2013
By Paige Mullen
No. 3 UK rifle defeated No. 12 University of Memphis on Sunday, winning its third consecutive match to start the season.
The Cats shot 4,693 to the Tigers’ 4,644, leading 2,325-2,303 after smallbore.
UK freshman Sonya May ended smallbore with a score of 583 and senior Aaron Holsopple finished with 580.
“I think we did pretty good overall,” UK head coach Harry Mullins said. “We started out a little shaky in smallbore, but the team worked really hard.”
The Cats took the lead early in air rifle, shooting 2,368 to Memphis’ 2,341.
UK sophomore Connor Davis started out dropping five of his first ten shots, but he continued to only drop two of his next 50 shots, ending with a score of 593.
Cats senior Emily Holsopple led air rifle with a score of 594.
“I think I did pretty well,” Holsopple said. “It was nothing special but it was still a good performance.”
UK freshman Sonya May followed Davis and Holsopple with an air rifle score of 592.
“In air rifle we started out really strong. It’s just at this point in the season, it’s about building mental endurance,” Mullins said. “Kind of like how you saw when they started out they were shooting a lot of tens, but as the match went on, they started getting a little tired and started making some mistakes. That is just something we are going to work on for the next couple of months.”
Mullins coached UK to a 2011 NCAA National Championship and a second-place finish in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
The Cats defeated No. 14 University of Mississippi on Saturday, Oct. 19, and No. 15 North Carolina State University on Friday, Oct. 25.
UK will face Texas Christian University on the road on Saturday, Nov. 2.
