Gilliam helps win national team title
Ashley Gilliam of Manchester was part of Team Tennessee that won the 12th and final USGA Women’s State Championship this week in Santa Fe, N.M. The reigning Tennessee Girls’ Junior champion joined Jayna Choi of Collierville and Riley Rennell of Columbia on the all-teenager trio directed by nonplaying captain Carol Medley. They shot a final-round 1-under-par 143 Thursday (Rennell 71, Gilliam 72) at The Club at Las Campanas to win at 431 in the competition that included temporary first places for Delaware, Florida, Alabama, New York and Indiana. Delaware wound up one stroke behind Tennessee and one ahead of Florida. The event began Tuesday with teams from 47 states and the District of Columbia.
› Josh Baker edged No. 1 seed David Watts in 19 holes in a Chattanooga TPC regular division match Friday at Council Fire, and Ronnie Law defeated senior division top seed Richard Keene 1 up. Law faces Neil Spitalny and Mike Poe meets Larry McGill in the senior semifinals. Greg Privette, Cres Dodd, Richard Spangler, Mikey Feher, Joe Markham, Jay Potter and Tom Schreiner are quarterfinalists with Baker.
› Calhoun resident Mike Nance shot an even-par 70 Friday and moved up into a tie for 13th at 143 in the 2017 Georgia Senior Championship at Idle Hour Club in Macon, and Summerville’s Randy Bowman also made the cut for today’s final round in a tie for 38th at 151. Alpharetta’s Bob Royak has a five-shot lead at 131.
› Dalton State’s Isabel Rijos was chosen the Southern States Athletic Conference women’s golfer of the month for September. After a 22nd-place finish in the SCAD Atlanta Fall Invitational, the sophomore was second at 141 in the Carey Collegiate Classic, where the Roadrunners won the team title.
› Sewanee rose 15 places to No. 10 in the Bushnell Golfweek NCAA Division III men’s rankings announced Friday by the Golf Coaches Association of America, and Dalton State remained No. 3 in the NAIA men’s poll. Sewanee shared first place and finished fifth and sixth in its three tournaments this month.
VOLLEYBALL
› Ally Ford had 20 kills and nine digs and Lauren Greenspoon had 34 assists and 17 digs as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga won 3-0 in Southern Conference volleyball Friday at The Citadel. The set scores were 25-17, 29-27, 25-22. Megan Kaufman and Miranda Elpers had 13 and 10 digs for UTC (9-8, 2-1); Dani Szczepanski had seven kills.
› With 20 kills, 15 digs and three aces from Silvia Sartori, Lee University rallied to beat visiting West Alabama 3-2 (18-25, 14-25, 26-24, 25-21, 15-8) in Gulf South volleyball for Andrea Hudson’s 800th win in her 27th year as the Lady Flames’ coach. Bailey Kress added 13 kills and Allie Koepfer had nine for Lee (9-3, 3-2), while Kristi Farley had 29 assists, Hanna Matthews 19 assists and MaKayla Beebe 22 digs.
SOCCER
› Chloe Ford had the UTC goal from a Macey Fox assist in a 3-1 Southern Conference soccer loss Friday night at Samford. The Bulldogs (7-5-1, 3-0) outshot the Mocs (3-7-2, 1-2) 17-5.
› Summer Lanter’s unassisted goal for Lee University 2:34 into the match held up for a 1-0 women’s GSC soccer win Friday at West Georgia, and the Lee men won 2-0 at home against Shorter. Alfie Coldron scored in the 15th minute and Craig Quinn in the 89th for the Flames (4-3-2, 3-2). The Lady Flames (6-3, 5-1) had a 26-9 shots margin and a 9-3 edge in corner kicks.
› Visiting Oglethorpe beat Sewanee 3-1 in an SAA men’s game. Kyle Johnston scored for the Tigers (4-5, 0-1).
TENNIS
› The UTC women’s tennis team won four of six singles matches and five of six doubles contests Friday in the first day of the Georgia Southern Invitational. The Mocs’ Caroline Hall and Tamri Chalagandize won handily in Blue Singles and Annie Tarwater and Bogdana Zaporozhets advanced in White Singles, and the duos of Hall/Zaprozhets and Chalagandize/Tarwater each won twice. Sydney Patton and Emma van Hee won 6-0 together before losing.