Austin Peay hires TWU’s Kolarova
After 12 seasons as women’s soccer coach at Tennessee Wesleyan University, Naomi Kolarova has taken the same position at NCAA Division I member Austin Peay. The New Zealand native went 118-93-18 with the Lady Bulldogs, 65-29-8 in Appalachian Athletic Conference play, and this year’s team won 15 games and reached the NAIA tournament quarterfinals and a No. 11 national ranking. It was the Lady Bulldogs’ third NAIA national appearance under Kolarova. “We are extremely excited about this opportunity for Naomi and want to congratulate her on the new position,” athletic director Donny Mayfield said in a TWU release. “We are also sad to lose such a great coach and friend as Naomi, who … has been a stalwart in our athletic department and has led the women’s soccer program to new heights with class and integrity.”
SEWANEE SPORTS
› Sewanee recently announced the 2018 spring-semester schedules for men’s and women’s golf, lacrosse and tennis. The women golfers begin Feb. 10 by hosting Lipscomb at The Course at Sewanee and then will join the Sewanee men in tournaments March 5-6 at Callaway Gardens and March 16-18 at Jekyll Island. The teams also will be together April 20-22 for the Southern Athletic Association Championships at the Greystone Club in Dickson, Tenn., where the female Tigers will host the Sewanee Spring Invitational April 8-9. The men will play April 6-7 in the Division III Match Play Invitational at Greensboro, N.C. They were ranked 10th in the final Bushnell Golfweek Division III coaches’ poll of the fall semester.
› The No. 22 Sewanee men’s tennis team will open Feb. 10 and 11 in Gambier, Ohio, against Kalamazoo and host school Kenyon and will be at home for matches Feb. 17 against North Carolina Wesleyan and Feb. 18 against Piedmont and Hanover. Coach John Shackelford’s team will split up the next weekend, one group going to Fredricksburg, Va., to play Mary Washington, Coe and Stevens while the other Tigers host Transylvania and LaGrange. SAA play begins March 10 at Centre, followed March 16-21 by five matches in California. The Tigers’ only home matches of the month will be March 24 against DePauw, March 30 against Birmingham-Southern and March 31 against Millsaps. April will include five road matches with nonconference home contests on the 10th against Covenant and the 18th against Washington & Lee before the SAA tournament April 20-22 in Murfreesboro.
› After opening Feb. 16 at home against Brenau, Conchie Shackelford’s No. 17 Sewanee women’s tennis team will play along with the men against N.C. Wesleyan, Piedmont, Hanover, Transy, LaGrange, Centre, DePauw, Birmingham-Southern, Millsaps and, in April, Hendrix, Rhodes, Covenant, Berry and Oglethorpe and in the SAA tourney in Murfreesboro. They also will go to California at the same time, likewise for five matches. The big difference in their schedule will be the ITA National Indoor Championships against seven other ranked women’s teams March 2-4 in Chattanooga. No. 2 Emory, No. 6 Pomona-Pitzer, No. 9 Chicago, No. 10 Carnegie Mellon, No. 11 Washington (Mo.), No. 12 Washington & Lee and No. 13 Johns Hopkins also will participate.
› Sewanee begins its men’s lacrosse season Feb. 10 against Catholic (D.C.) at Charlottesville, Va., and its women’s season Feb. 17 in immediate SAA play at Rhodes. The men will be at home Feb. 17-18 against Guilford and Southwestern (Texas) but will play five of their next six matches on the road, the exception being March 11 against Illinois Wesleyan. The male Tigers open SAA competition March 15 at Birmingham-Southern. Their other home matches will be March 23 against North Central (Ill.), March 24 against Oglethorpe and April 6, 8 and 14 against Rhodes, Hendrix and Berry. The women’s home schedule is Feb. 24-25 against BSC and Adrian, March 6-7 against Carthage and Ohio Northern, March 11-12 against Transylvania and Illinois Wesleyan and March 24 against Hendrix. The SAA tournaments start April 20.