Covenant’s Smith national qualifier
Covenant College senior Lilly Smith qualified for the NCAA Division III cross country meet with a ninth-place finish of 22:57.66 in the South/Southeast Region women’s 6-kilometer race Saturday at Berry College. She became the first Lady Scot to be an NCAA all-region runner. The national meet is set for this Saturday at Winneconne, Wisconsin. Both Covenant teams were ninth as well, while Sewanee’s were 17th out of 32 women’s teams and 21st out of 33 men’s.
SOCCER
› Tennessee Wesleyan won the Appalachian Athletic Conference women’s soccer tournament Saturday with a 5-1 rout of visiting Milligan. Hannah Dearing scored the first goal in the 10th minute and Dayna Randall and Chloe Rootes netted two each in the 11th consecutive win for the Lady Bulldogs (12-5-1), who lost their first three games and five of their first six under new coach Bryan Walker. Els van Hooijdonk set up Randall’s second score, and Randall double-assisted with Livia Walker on Rootes’ first.
› State champion Girls Preparatory School landed five of the 17 Division II-AA all-state players selected by Tennessee’s high school soccer coaches association for 2018, and Baylor had two. The GPS all-staters are sophomore forward Ashley Grant, senior forward Kylie Eiselstein, sophomore midfielder Sydney Morris, senior midfielder Lane Lawrence and junior Meg Priest, the only defender listed. Baylor’s are senior forward Avery Davis and senior midfielder Mya McGee.
VOLLEYBALL
› Silvia Sartori capped her Lee University volleyball career as the Gulf South Conference player of the year and a thirdtime All-GSC first-team selection, and fellow senior MaKayla Beebe was the libero of the year and another first-teamer. Lady Flames junior setter Hanna Matthews from Ooltewah made the second team. Beebe was second-team twice before and Sartori was as a freshman.
› The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is seeded seventh in the Southern Conference volleyball tournament and is scheduled to open Friday at 5 p.m. in that event at UNC Greensboro against No. 2 seed Samford. The Mocs (10-19, 6-10) and Bulldogs (16-14, 11-5) split their regular-season matches.
TENNIS
› Matt Barnett, the Hixson resident who has trained at the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina the last two years, has committed to play collegiately for Sewanee starting in the 2019 fall semester. He will graduate from Hilton Head Preparatory School in May. “I was considering several other schools, but once I visited Sewanee it felt like a good fit,” Barnett said. “Not only does it have a great tennis program but also great academics.” The Tigers have become accustomed to national rankings.
BASKETBALL
› Despite a career-high 26 points and nine rebounds from Michael McGuirk, who was 6-of-7 on 3-point shots, the Lee University men’s basketball team lost a close home game in the season-opening GSC/SSC Challenge for the second day in a row Saturday, 86-82 to Palm Beach Atlantic. Cody Jones, Ryan Montgomery and Quay Kennedy added 12 points apiece for Lee, and Kentrell Evans had six assists.
› Lee won 71-50 at Saint Leo (Florida) in a women’s GSC/SSC Challenge game, as Haley Schubert and Abby Bertram each scored 16 points, Schubert with five steals and Bertram with four 3s, and Becca Cheeks grabbed eight rebounds. Lindsey Roddy had five assists.
› Playing at home in the SSAC/Mid-South Challenge, the NAIA’s 15th-ranked Dalton State men defeated No. 8 Pikeville 84-73 on Friday but lost 82-80 to No. 16 Cumberlands on Saturday. Against Pikeville, Elijah Staley and Sean Cranney each scored 17 points, Staley with 10 rebounds, and Sean Chislom had 11 rebounds with 10 points. Randy Bell and D’Anfernee Pugh scored 12 and 11. Saturday, Aaron Burress scored 18 on 7-of-8 shooting and Bell added 15 while Cranney had 11 assists with 12 points, Staley also scored 12 and Chislom scored 11. The Roadrunners (2-2) led by 12 late in the first half and 81-78 with 20 seconds left in the game.
› Covenant’s men opened their season with a 103-98 overtime loss at Birmingham-Southern, after leading by 16 in the first half. In defeat, Will Crumly had 26 points and 11 rebounds, Bailey Spragg had 23 points, seven assists and seven rebounds and James Mitchell scored 21 points with five 3s.
› Jonathon King scored 23 points and Delaino Walker added 20 plus 11 rebounds as Cleveland State’s men edged visiting Campbellsville-Somerset 70-67. Also for the Cougars (2-2), Domont’a Wright collected 10 rebounds and blocked four shots.