University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Paula Passmore was named the Southern Conference volleyball defensive player of the week Monday after she helped lead the Mocs to three straight wins to open the season and win the Country Inns & Suites Invitational at Maclellan Gym. Passmore totaled 77 digs in wins over Alcorn State, Tennessee Tech and USC Upstate, including a personal-best 41 against USCU. She averaged 7.7 digs per set and made the all-tournament team. UTC's 3-0 start is the program's best since 2001.
Auto Racing
• Whitwell mechanic Matt Grayson won the Super Pro eliminations and $1,500 Saturday at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip. He won with a 4.8585-second run on a 4.850 dial in a dragster with a 434-cubic-inch Chevrolet engine prepared by his father. Kevin Rodden was second with a 5.95 run on a 5.94 dial in a 1972 Chevy Vega, and David Bigham of Calhoun, Ga., and Wayne Holland of Soddy-Daisy were third and fourth. Holland, the strip's official photographer, used a borrowed Chevy dragster for his first race in more than a decade. Marty Goldsmith of Ringgold won the Foot Brake class with an 8.68 run on an 8.65 dial in his 1973 Plymouth, leaving L.C. Bigham of Tunnel Hill second. Ryan Dennis of Cleveland won the Junior Dragster top prize with Tyler Dennis of Hixson second. The strip held a motorcycle competition for the first time in years and had 12 entries, and Cody Crane won with Bud Calhoun second.
Baseball
• The Chattanooga Cyclones K fall baseball team opened its season by going 4-0 in the Southern Wood Bat Troy Invitational this past weekend. Dakota Hudson, Charlie Ward and Winston Whitener pitched the Cyclones to a 7-3 win over the North Alabama Vipers White with Lee Gibson and Drew Williams each having two hits and scoring twice, Gibson with three RBIs and Williams with one. Logan Baldwin had two hits and three RBIs, Gibson stole two bases and scored twice and Whitener and Williams each had two hits and two RBIs in a 10-6 win over the Cyclones V, when Nick Gaddis got the pitching win with relief from Kaleb Hill and Logan Fugate. Jake Wyrick got the win in relief when the Cyclones scored four runs in the bottom of the last inning for a 6-5 defeat of VBA, when Gibson and Whitener each had two hits, Gibson with two runs and Whitener with a run and an RBI. Gabe Rich had a two-run triple, Whitener had two hits and Gibson stole two bases in a closing 6-2 victory behind pitchers Tyler Reed and Williams.
Soccer
• The Tennessee Temple University soccer games scheduled for Monday evening at Camp Jordan Park were not played. The Temple women's game against Cocordia-Selma was canceled, and the men's match against Hiwassee was postponed.
• The Tennessee Wesleyan men's soccer team, picked to win the Appalachian Athletic Conference this season, begins its season today at Cumberland University in a nonconference game. TWC went 14-5 last year, 5-2 in the AAC, and got five of the seven first-place votes from league coaches. Defending regular-season champion Milligan got the other two.