Covenant rallies, wins USAS final

Covenant College stretched its school-record volleyball winning streak to 16 with a 3-2 victory Saturday in the USA South tournament final in Danville, Va., against Averett University, which has a 32-4 record, beat the Lady Scots 3-1 in mid-September and won the first two sets of the rematch 25-13, 25-17. But Covenant (24-7) won the last three 25-22, 28-26, 15-10 to secure the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Division III national tournament. In the win, tournament MVP Schuyler Moore had 37 assists, 12 digs and seven kills while fellow all-tournament selections Jessica Seehorn and

Ginny Moore had 13 and 11 kills and 13 and 11 digs. Also for Covenant, Hannah Harris had 10 kills, Hannah Stewart 13 digs, Emily Moore 11 digs and Allie Jakes two block solos and five block assists.

› The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga endured its second 3-2 Southern Conference road loss in as many days Saturday at Samford: 25-18, 23-25, 25-15, 16-25, 15-11.

Miranda Elpers had 13 kills and 15 digs and Madison Bergren had 32 assists with Lauren Greenspoon adding 14 for UTC (13-15, 6-8). Megan Kaufman also had 15 digs and

Mikaela Gauthreaux, Dani Szczepanski, Emily Plumlee and Eden Murray had nine, eight, eight and seven kills.

› With 27 kills and 16 digs from Silvia Sartori, Lee University edged Montevallo 3-2 (25-16, 22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-13) in Gulf South Conference play. Sadie Johnson and

Kristi Farley contributed 28 and 25 assists and 13 and 14 digs while MaKayla Beebe and

Brooke Wilsman had 34 and 23 digs for Lee (18-8, 9-5). Bailey Kress, Quinne Daoust and

Alex Reuter added nine, eight and seven kills.

RUNNING

› Lee won the men’s race for the second year in a row and finished second in the women’s in the NCAA Division II South Region cross country meet Saturday at Lakeland, Fla. Both teams advance to the national meet Nov. 18 in Evansville, Ind. The Flames totaled 82 points to runner-up Alabama-Huntsville’s 92 in the 16-team 10-kilometer event, with Harold Smith fifth, Christian Noble seventh, Ben Gilman 17th, Moises Ponce 26th and Seth Eagleson 29th. The Lady Flames had 94 points to winner Saint Leo’s 78 in the 6k, where Emily Buwalda was fifth, Charlsee Boxall 11th, Becca Umbarger 13th and Audrey Smith 25th.

› Dalton State finished third in the women’s 5k at the Southern States Athletic Conference meet Friday at Clinton, Miss., and Noor Sabeeh was seventh individually in 20:05.58 and qualified for the NAIA national meet Nov. 18 at Vancouver, Wash. Sabeeh made the SSAC all-freshman team and was joined on the all-conference team by DSC’s Nayeli Jacobo and Kay Vradenburgh, who were 12th and 13th. Hayley Hight and Morgan King were 17th and 19th.

BASKETBALL

› Lee’s Division II basketball teams beat Bryan’s NAIA women 93-72 but lost 78-76 to Covenant’s D-III men in exhibition games Saturday in Cleveland. Lee’s Lindsey Roddy scored 20 points and Erin Walsh had 13 plus seven assists, while Keneisha Love scored 17 and Deandra Luna and Shayla Ludy added 14 each for Bryan, Luna with six assists. James Mitchell led Covenant with 15 points on five 3s, and Berto Dryden, Will Crumly and Caleb Haynes also scored in double figures. For Lee, Ryan Montgomery had 26 points and eight rebounds, Parker Suedekum 15 points, Levi Woods 11 rebounds and Chase Cullen nine rebounds with 10 points.

› The Georgia Northwestern women’s basketball team did something in its season opener Friday that it had failed to do in the entirety of the last three seasons — win a game. Led by 27 points and 19 rebounds from Madison Lewis, the Lady Bobcats won 72-60 at Trinity Baptist in Florida for the program’s first victory since Feb. 1, 2014. Kayla Stone had 17 points, four assists and four steals and Tori Harvey had 13 points, 13 rebounds and four assists.

SOCCER

› Covenant defender Matt Morefield was named to the 2017 USA South men’s soccer all-tournament team Saturday. Host North Carolina Wesleyan edged Maryville 1-0 in the championship matchup of the East and West No. 1 seeds. Covenant forward Addy Cronan was a women’s all-tournament selection.

FIELD HOCKEY

› Top-seeded Rhodes defeated No. 4 seed Sewanee 4-0 in the Southern Athletic Association field hockey tournament semifinals Saturday in Memphis. Katya Waters made 12 saves for the Tigers, who ended their season at 8-8. Daryl Perry scored two goals for the Lynx (12-4).

FOOTBALL

› UTC football coach Tom Arth will be the guest speaker for the Chattanooga Quarterback Club’s noon luncheon meeting Monday at Finley Stadium, and the public is invited. Attendance is $12 with a meal, $4 without.