Fayetteville Christian Academy's volleyball team entered the O'Neal School gym Tuesday with an undefeated record. It left with its first loss, after the Lady Falcons took a 3-2 win by set scores of 25-18, 20-25, 25-14, 23-25 and 15-10.

Kate Fedder and Alex DiMaggio led the effort, with Fedder posting a team-high 15 kills and DiMaggio posting a team-high 17 digs. KellyAnn Miller added eight digs.

The Lady Falcons improve to 10-3 overall with the win and are 4-1 in the Cape Fear Independent Conference. They play again Thursday at Cape Fear Academy.

UP XC Remains Unbeaten

Wednesday, the Union Pines boys' cross country team placed first in a league quad-meet at Douglas Byrd, running its Cape Fear Valley Conference record to 15-0 to remain atop the regular season standings.

Junior Joseph Morris paced the Vikings with a third-place finish, followed directly by senior captain Will McCoy, who finished fourth. The Vikes tallied 29 points to win the meet. Overhills took second with 46 points, followed by Douglas Byrd (91) and Western Harnett (135).

Dan Deardorff, Trevor Morris, Josh Smith, Thomas Freeman and Brandon Berry rounded out the top seven for the Vikings, who all but sealed a regular season conference title with their finish on Wednesday.

The Lady Vikings were unable to make up ground to the first-place Overhills as they finished in second place behind the Lady Jags (15-0 CFV). Byrd took third place and Western finished fourth.

Union Pines' top five finishers were Brittney Stevens, Kayla Lively, Savannah Mangrum, Courtney Voss and Alyssa Radel. The Lady Vikes are now 12-3 in league competetion and in second place in the conference standings.

Vikings Justin Davis, Josh Smith, Israel McDonald, Laura Haulsee and Callahan McNeil all posted personal best times for the year at the event.

Both Union Pines' teams conclude the conference regular season Wednesday in another league quad-meet hosted by Western Harnett.

Pinecrest Sweeps XC Meet

The Pinecrest boys and girls each won their fifth Southeastern Conference cross country tri-meet in a row at the home Elks Club 5K course Tuesday afternoon.

A busy week continues with Pinecrest hosting the Patriot Run Cross County Meet at the same course on Saturday.

Not included in the team results for the boys in the conference meet was the run by Peter Deucher, a home school student from Southern Pines, who finished first with a time of 17:24. The next six to finish were Patriot runners, giving the home team a perfect score of 15. Hoke County was second with 65 points, followed by Lumberton with 72.

Patriot runners taking the second through seventh places were Dalton Allen (17:46), Jacob Allen (18:26), George Hayes (19:28), Graham Hawes (19:40), Jacob Troutman (19:48) and William Garrett (20:47).

Caitlin Walsh of Pinecrest won the girls' race in 22:29. Patriot runners took nine of the first 11 places to finish with 16 points to 46 for Lumberton. Hoke did not have enough contestants to post a team result.

The second- through fourth-place finishers for the Patriot girls were Fay Chu (22:31), Kara Zoellner (22:33) and Olivia Hernandez (23:38). Hanna Bornhorst (23:53) and Katana Lemelin (23:53) took the sixth and seventh spots. Lauren Bonville (23:55), Sarah Lindsay Pressley (23:59) and Hayden Rudd (24:38) finished in the ninth through eleventh positions.

Next week's conference meet will be held at Scotland County.

Varsity squads that have entered Saturday's Patriot Run include Union Pines, Jack Britt, Cardinal Gibbons, Enloe, Richmond Senior and Lake Norman Charter.

The race schedule is: varsity boys 10 a.m.; varsity girls 10:45; jayvee boys 11:30; jayvee girls 12:15; middle school 1 p.m.

For further information about the event, contact John Buchholz at (910) 944-2512 or Jeremy Swofford at (919) 741-1054.

O'Neal XC Takes Wins

The O'Neal School cross country teams raced their last home meet of the season Wednesday at Sandhills Community College in a tri-meet against North Moore High School and New Garden Friends School. The boys' team finished in first place and was again led by sophomore Austin Puleo, who finished first with a time of 18:43. Evan Davies made a fifth-place showing in 20:42, and Ian Maynor finished sixth in 20:55.

Other notable finishes by the Falcons included Tommy Miller (10th in 21:44), Zeb Viskovich (11th in 21:50), Mark Pracht (14th in 23:28), Josh Hager (17th in 24:22), Dylan Andrews (21st in 26:26) and Jack Lucas (24th in 27:07). The boys' team's score was 29.

Eighth-grader Mulloy Manning won the girls' race with a time of 24:40. The Lady Falcons had the top three finishers individually. Blair Puleo took second place with a time of 25:09, while Whitney Cutler finished third in 26:52. Micaela Wilkinson took ninth place with a time of 30:06.

Mustang Kickers Win

North Moore's boys soccer team defeated Chatham Central 5-2 on Wednesday to improve to 5-9-0 overall and 4-7-0 in Yadkin Valley Conference play.

"I'm proud of the way we are playing," said head coach Ben Shamberger. "It was a great result tonight and a key victory."

North Moore held a 2-1 lead at halftime on the strength of a pair of Simon Wagner goals, but Chatham Central tied the score at 2-all early in the second half.

The Mustangs answered with three goals in the second half from Luis Peralta, Edgar Cabrera and Jared McNeill.

The Mustang defense limited scoring opportunities against a speedy Chatham offense.

"Our defense is stronger and it shows," said Shamberger. "In the last five games, we've recorded our first shutout and only given up 10 goals, which is a dramatic reduction from the first half of the season."

North Moore goalkeeper Jose Peralta recorded four saves to bring his season total to 40.

The Mustangs are back in action Monday, hosting South Davidson at 6:30 p.m.

O'Neal Tennis Cruises

The O'Neal School varsity tennis team took the court against conference opponent Fayetteville Christian Academy Wednesday and won 8-1.

In singles, Brianna Ek won 6-1, 6-0, Amelia Schirmer won 6-1, 6-0, Mary Garner won 6-0, 6-1, Virginia Scarpa won 6-1, 6-1, and Victoria Scarpa won 6-0, 6-0.

In two exhibition matches, Greyson Keel defeated Seefanie Perez 8-1, and Jordan Fisher won 8-2.

In doubles, Ek and Jenkins won 8-4, Schirmer and Garner won 8-1, and Scarpa and Scarpa won 8-3.

O'Neal improved to 7-3 overall and 2-2 in conference matches with the win. The Falcons travel to Wilmington on Thursday to play the conference's first-place team, Cape Fear Academy.