Tennessee Temple set for USCAA volleyball nationals - and more Chattanooga region sports news

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

The Tennessee Temple University volleyball team lost its first six matches this season under first-year coach Mary Willis but has won 17 of 22 since then and has been rewarded with a berth in the USCAA national tournament in northern New York. The Lady Crusaders, 17-11 after a 3-0 home win Monday against Johnson University, are seeded ninth for the Oct. 30-Nov. 1 event at SUNY-Canton. It includes 10 teams. "I feel really great about it. It's all because my girls work hard," Willis said Monday night. "We said at the first of the season that we wanted to go to the national tournament, and now we're going." In Monday's 25-11, 25-20, 25-22 victory, Victoria Smith had 10 kills, Kiara Govan had 30 assists and Lydia Vick and Naomi Posada had 14 and 13 digs. Temple has six regular-season matches left, including five before the national tournament.

• Sewanee's Diamond Stewart was the Southern Athletic Association volleyball offensive player of the week, and teammate Sara Jayne Sutton was the defensive honoree. Stewart had double-doubles in all three Tigers matches last week, including 16 kills and 19 digs in Sewanee's first volleyball win ever against Birmingham-Southern. Sutton had 30 digs in that match, 39 against Millsaps and 23 against Centre.

Golf

• Taylor Davis is the individual winner at 138 (67-71) and his Lee University team heads the 17-school field after Monday's two rounds in the TVA Credit Union Invitational tournament at Florence, Ala. The Flames are at 573, seven ahead of second-place Columbus State, with Matt Strube tied for eighth at 144 and Corey Sheppard and Ryne Thompson at 148 and 149. Peyton Sliger is at 152 after shooting Lee's second-best first-round score, 73.

• With Sean Elliott, Max Bruck and Dalton Johnson matching 1-under-par 71s, the Dalton State men's golf team took the first-round lead with a collective 286 Monday in the 36-hole Chick-Fil-A Invitational tournament at Coosa Country Club in Rome, Ga. Reigning NAIA champion Coastal Georgia is second at 289 in the 21-team field, and Spring Hill is third at 292. Georgia Northwestern is tied for 13th at 311, and Covenant is 18th at 323. The DSC trio are in a six-way tie for fourth in the individual standings, two shots out of the lead. Teammates Chase Jones and Levi Nix shot 73 and 76. Hunter Cornelius from Heritage High School was the No. 2 scorer for Coastal Georgia with a 72. Chase Cole carded a 75 for GNTC, with Jordan Estes at 77 and Grant Allen at 79, and Nick Blauw had a 74 with Scott McKnight at 78 for Covenant.

• Dalton State also leads the nine-team Chick-Fil-A women's tournament at Rome's Stonebridge Golf Club after a 303 in Monday's first round. That's a nine-stroke edge over the two second-place teams, Cumberlands and USC-Beaufort. The Lady Roadrunners' Erika Wardzinski is the individual leader at 71, and Caroline Griffin and Julia McQuilken are tied for third and eighth at 74 and 77. Taylor Marie Griner and Rachel Rebne also are in the top 25 at 81 and 83.

Swimming & Diving

• Sewanee sophomore Caty Hueske was the SAA women's swimmer of the week, and the Tigers' David Evans was the men's diver of the week. In a meet including Centre, Birmingham-Southern and Washington & Lee, Hueske won the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes and the 200 individual medley. She has the best Division III time in the nation this season in the 200 back (2:09.64), the second-best 100 back and the fifth-best 200 IM. Evans was honored for his first-place 3-meter point total in the meet.

Running

• Covenant's Eliot Kaufmann was the USA South men's cross country runner and rookie runner of the week -- both for the third time this season -- after finishing 22nd out of 185 runners at the Berry College Invitational meet with a personal-best 27:11.2 for 8 kilometers, and Covenant's Abby Irwin was the women's rookie runner after her PR 25:24.5 for the 6k at Berry.

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