Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewsapers.com
A former Radford High School basketball standout has signed a contract to extend his career overseas.
The 5-8 Quinton Morton-Robertson graduated from Purdue University Ft. Wayne in 2025 after a career at Radford High School. He recently announced the signing to KK Alkar Sinj the Croatian Premijier Laga professional league.
Morton-Robertson also played for a year at Radford University after leading Radford High School to a combined 112-6 record, including a 30-0 record as a senior. The team won the 1A State Championship as a freshman (2015-16) and sophomore (2016-17) and a 2A State Championship as a senior (2018-19). He scored over 2,000 points in his career and totaled 41 in his final contest as a Bobcat shooting 7-for-9 from the 3-point line.
International player to Tech
Virginia Tech women’s basketball head coach Megan Duffy has announced the signing of Špela Brecelj to the 2025-26 squad.
A native of Ajdovščina, Slovenia, the 6-foot-2 guard/forward rounds out the freshman signing class, joining Amani Jenkins, Kate Sears, and Aniya Trent.
Brecelj has extensive experience in international competition, including participation in six European Championships and one World Cup with the Slovenian Youth National Team. She spent the summer representing Slovenia in the FIBA U20 Women’s EuroBasket tournament in Portgual and also trained with the Slovenian Senior National Team as they prepared for the 2025 FIBA Women’s EuroBasket Championship.
She owns three gold medals at European Championships, including U18B in 2022, and U18A and U20B in 2023.
Holloway, Copland on Comeback List
Wide receiver/punt returner, Tucker Holloway and defensive tackle, Kemari Copeland have been named to the watch list for the Comeback Player of the Year Award presented by College Sports Communicators in conjunction with the Associated Press (AP) and the Fiesta Bowl.
Since 2018, the award has recognized college football student-athletes for overcoming injury, illness, or other circumstances. At the conclusion of each season, in a vote by a panel of college football writers, editors, and sports information directors, three college football student-athletes are honored as Comeback Player of the Year Award winners at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.
Holloway (6-2, 185) missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a significant injury during spring practice. In 2023, the Andrews, North Carolina product played in 13 games, recording five receptions for 49 yards and rushed for a 33-yard touchdown in a 55-17 win over Virginia. He returned 20 punts for a total of 258 yards. His average punt return yardage of 12.9 ranked 7th in the country and his 66-yard punt return against Old Dominon (Sept. 2) was his longest of the season.
Copeland (6-3, 283) played in four games in 2024, making six tackles, before missing the remainder of the season with an injury. The Virginia Beach, Virginia native was recently named to Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks List” published by the Athletic. Copeland vertical jumped 32 1/2 inches, broad jumped 9-5 and clocked more than 20 mph on the GPS this summer. He also squatted 685 pounds and benched 455.
RU ladies picked third
Eight-time defending Big South women’s cross country champion High Point University has been unanimously voted the favorite in the conference’s annual preseason poll by the league’s head coaches, the conference office announced last week.
The Panthers received all nine first-place votes and 81 points to claim the top preseason spot for the eighth consecutive season. Charleston Southern, last year’s Runner-Up, was second in the poll with 67 points — just ahead of third-place Radford (66 points).
UNC Asheville finished fourth in the voting with 52 points, ahead of Longwood, which placed fifth in the poll with 47 points. USC Upstate landed in the sixth position with 36 points, followed by Gardner-Webb (seventh-place, 24 points), Winthrop (eighth-place, 20 points) and Presbyterian College (ninth-place, 12 points) to round out the preseason rankings.
RU men picked fourth
Five-time defending Big South men’s cross country champion Charleston Southern University has been voted the favorite in the conference’s annual preseason poll by the league’s head coaches, the conference office announced.
The Buccaneers claimed the top spot in this year’s poll with eight first-place votes and 80 points. High Point, last year’s Runner-Up, finished second in the preseason ranking with 68 points and collected the remaining first-place vote. UNC Asheville placed third in the voting with 66 points, while Radford claimed fourth in the poll with 55 points.
USC Upstate followed in fifth place with 42 points, with Longwood in the sixth position at 40 points. Winthrop landed in the seventh spot (23 points), followed by Gardner-Webb (eighth-place with 18 points) and Presbyterian College (ninth, 13 points) to round out the preseason rankings.
Big South volleyball
For the first time since 1989, two teams have tied atop the Big South’s annual preseason volleyball poll, as defending champion High Point University along with Winthrop University were voted the 2025 favorites by the league’s head coaches, it was announced today by the conference office. Meanwhile, the coaches voted Winthrop outside hitter/opposite Avery Jolley (Knoxville, Tenn.) the Preseason Player of the Year and the Eagles’ Isabella Murray (Norcross, Ga.) the Preseason Setter of the Year. UNC Asheville’s Michelle Thao (Hickory, N.C.) and Winthrop’s Sophia Matthews (Apex, N.C.) shared Preseason Libero of the Year honors as part of the Preseason All-Conference team selections.
High Point and Winthrop each received four first-place votes and 59 total points in the preseason rankings. HPU holds the top spot for the ninth consecutive year, while WU is atop the preseason poll for the first time since 2007. High Point, under the direction of eighth-year head coach Ryan Meek, was the Big South regular-season champion in 2024 with its 13-1 record in league matches and defeated the Eagles in five sets to win the 2024 Conference Tournament. Winthrop, led by fourth-year head coach Heather Gearhart, finished 12-2 in Big South contests last season and played in the NIVC postseason tournament.
USC Upstate was third in the polling with 44 points, while UNC Asheville was fourth with 39 points. Radford landed in the fifth position with 34 points, ahead of Charleston Southern (25 points for sixth). Presbyterian College claimed the seventh spot with 17 points, and Gardner-Webb was picked eighth with 11 points to round out the poll.
