GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Chattanooga Football Club's stay in the 100th U.S. Open Cup was a short one, though there was nothing short about its first-round game Tuesday night at Macpherson Stadium. CFC lost to the Carolina Dynamo on penalty kicks, 4-1, after the teams were tied 4-4 following two 15-minute overtime periods. Neither team scored in the first period, but in the second, in the 115th minute of play, Fynn Glover scored off a corner kick to put CFC in front. The Dynamo's Hakan Ilhan answered moments later with his third goal of the game to make it 4-all. Down 1-0 at halftime, CFC scored three straight to lead 3-1 with 15 minutes to play in regulation. But the Dynamo were able to rally and force overtime. Chattanooga FC will be back on the road this weekend, resuming National Premier Soccer League play against new Southeast division member Gulfcoast Texans.
Basketball
• Sarah Harris, a Wheaton College assistant coach the past three years, has been hired as the women's head basketball coach at Covenant College, succeeding Tami Smialek. Harris has four years of NCAA Division III head coaching experience at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, where she directed 39 wins, and was a graduate assistant at UNC Greensboro from 2004 to '06. "We are thrilled to add Sarah Harris to the athletics team at Covenant College," athletic director and men's basketball coach Kyle Taylor said in a school release. "Her extensive background both as a player and as a coach at the NCAA Division III level was a key factor in our decision." Harris said Covenant "quickly won me over with its commitment to pursuing athletic excellence within the framework of a genuine Christian academic environment."
Softball
• The nationally third-ranked Lee University softball team whipped 14th-ranked Olivet Nazarene 8-1 on Tuesday in the winners-bracket final of the NAIA opening series Lee is hosting at Butler Field, but Olivet beat Bethel (Ind.) 7-2 in the losers' final and will meet the Lady Flames again today at 1, needing to beat the hosts twice to advance to Columbus, Ga. Jennifer Ringle capped a five-run second inning for Lee (46-9) with a three-run double, and Lizzie Stevens was 3-for-3 and matched Meghan Macias with two runs scored. Laurel Allen was 2-for-3 and Ana Coscorrosa and Macias each was 2-for-4, Macias with two doubles, as the Lady Flames outhit the Illinois team 15-6. Jessa Watts and Caroline MacAusland pitched three and four innings of the combined six-hitter. Hannah Gardner was 3-for-3 and scored three runs for Olivet (48-8) against Bethel.
Track & Field
• Led by freshman Mckenzie Ethridge and 10th-grader Mallory Young, the Signal Mountain girls' track and field team won the Class A/AA East Sectional meet Monday at Christian Academy of Knoxville. Ethridge won the 100- and 200-meter sprints and was part of 4x100 and 4x200 relay victories, the former with classmates Anna Abello, Katie Lingle and Aryn Sanders and the longer relay with Sanders, Lingle and sophomore Shelby Wright. Young won the 3200, finished second in the 1600 and joined Madison Drennan, Becca Umbarger and Emily Thornton in winning the 4x800 relay, while eighth-grader Camryn Bowman finished sixth in both the shot put and discus. Chaz Hawkins led the Signal boys with a first place in the 110 hurdles, and his third-place 300 hurdles time also may qualify for the state meet. That will be known Friday when all sectionals are done.
Wrestling
• Cleveland High School junior Ethan West is the only Chattanooga-area wrestler ranked by FloWrestling in its new ratings that include rising freshmen through rising seniors. West, a 2013 Tennessee state runner-up and a former Georgia state champion, is ranked 14th at 182 pounds. The only other Tennessee wrestlers in the rankings are Christian Brothers' Tate Robinson, fourth at 132, and Wilson Central's John Kramer, 20th at 220.