Anna Claire Knight, Tashayla Steede and Kayla Upchurch will join the Georgia Southern Lady Eagles basketball team and coach Rusty Cram for the 2011-12 season.
    All three hail from the state of Georgia.
    Knight, a 5-foot-10 guard from Dublin, just recently scored her 3,000th point for the Trinity Christian Crusaders. Knight scored an average of 24.0 points per game last season and has averaged nearly 20 points per game throughout her career at Trinity Christian and coach Rick Johnson. Her team finished with a 31-2 record her junior season and she was named to the All-Region and All-State teams.
    Steede, a 6-foot forward from Marietta plays for Wheeler High School where she was named Cobb County Player of the Month during her freshman season.
    A four-year letter winner and twice selected captain for Chattahoochee High School, Upchurch recently scored her 1,000th point. The 5-foot-9 guard from Alpharetta helped the Cougars to a 20-9 record last season and was named Region Tournament MVP.

Blue Devils draw in season opener
    SAVANNAH — The Statesboro Blue Devils played Savannah Christian to a 1-1 draw Tuesday in the 2011 soccer opener in Savannah.
    Adam Purvis was credited with the assist to Alan Rodriguez to put the Blue Devils on the scoreboard.
    Statesboro plays its home opener Friday when it hosts Grovetown. The girls play at 5:30 p.m. and the boys plat at 7:30 p.m.

Lady Eagles head to Atlanta
    The Georgia Southern softball Lady Eagles to the road to open a string of 16-straight road games Wednesday against Georgia State in Atlanta.
    The Eagles are coming off an opening weekend of play that saw two wins over Mercer and two losses to Radford in the SpringHill Suites Eagle Classic.
    Georgia Southern (2-2) was paced at the tournament by Mackenzie Williams, who was 4-for-9 on the weekend with two home runs and a double. Williams posted a 1.222 slugging percentage and drew three walks in her final three plate appearances of the weekend.
    Preseason SoCon Player of the Year Megen Smith opened the season in style with a home run in her first at bat of the season. She added another later in the game against Mercer.
    The Eagles will look to deny Georgia State (3-1) head coach Bob Heck his 700th career victory. In his 24th year, Heck is 698-580-2 all-time. At the First Pitch Classic last weekend, the Panthers topped Tennessee Tech, 3-2, and Morehead State, 10-7 and 5-0, while falling to 2010 Big East Champion Syracuse, 13-1.
    Audrey Mason leads the Panther batters with a .385 mark. Lauren Jones is hitting .333 with a pair of long-balls. Pitcher Kaitlyn Medlam is 2-0 with a perfect .000 ERA allowing five hits and no runs in 8.2 innings of work.
    The Eagles will play next in the Garnet and Gold Tournament at JoAnne Graf Field on the campus of Florida State University. Georgia Southern will face FSU, Middle Tennessee State and Kentucky in pool play before playing two more bracket games. The tournament starts for GSU on Friday, Feb. 18th at 10 a.m. against Kentucky.