Chattanooga's Lady Mocs 16th in Lindy's preseason poll

photo Jim Foster, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Lady Mocs basketball coach, speaks to supporters shortly after he was named to the post in May.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball team is ranked No. 16 in the nation in the Lindy's Magazine preseason poll recently released. Last year's Lady Mocs went 29-4 with an opening win over Tennessee and were 19-1 in Southern Conference play, and departing coach Wes Moore was succeeded by Hall of Famer Jim Foster, who's 783-307 with Vanderbilt and Ohio State tenures included. UTC's season opens Nov. 8 at home against Alabama.

Soccer

• The Bryan College men's soccer team moved into the NAIA Top 25 on Tuesday and celebrated with a 1-0 Appalachian Athletic Conference home win over Truett-McConnell, but the Georgia school beat the Lady Lions 3-1 in the first game of the doubleheader despite 11 saves by Stephanie Gagnon. Daniel Branley scored 9:44 into the second half from a Jorge Gonzalez Giron assist for the Lions (6-1, 4-0), who have lost only to third-ranked Rio Grande and are tied for 25th in the poll with Baker College of Kansas. Bryan had margins of 21-6 in shots and 9-2 in corner kicks, but Bears goalkeeper Craig Stephenson made nine saves. The Lady Bears (6-5, 4-2) outshot the Lady Lions 21-3; Lauren Gocke scored from a Shelby Julian assist for Bryan (3-3-1, 0-2-1) when the score was 3-0.

• Tennessee Wesleyan's Samaira Khan was the AAC women's soccer offensive player of the week after scoring two goals in Saturday's win and having an assist against Truett-McConnell earlier last week. She's a sophomore from England.

Golf

• Tennessee Wesleyan basketball coach Mike Poe from Athens, Tenn., fell 4 and 3 to former Lupton Memorial Tournament champion Doug Hanzel from Savannah, Ga., in the round of 32 of the U.S. Senior Amateur tournament Tuesday at Wade Hampton Golf Club in Cashiers, N.C. Earlier in the day, Chattanoogan Neil Spitalny fell 4 and 3 to Jim Rollefson of Wisconsin in the conclusion of their round-of-64 match suspended due to darkness Monday.

Volleyball

• Bryan College raised its volleyball record to 15-1, 6-0 in the AAC, with a 3-1 (25-12, 20-25, 25-12, 25-9) win Tuesday evening at Tennessee Wesleyan (5-10, 2-5).

• Senior setter Katheryn Knarr from Chickamauga, Ga., and Girls Preparatory School had 27 assists and 16 digs as Piedmont College rallied from a two-set deficit to edge Covenant 3-2 (16-25, 23-25, 25-16, 27-25, 15-10) in USA South volleyball Tuesday on Lookout Mountain. Kaitlin Norman had 19 kills for Piedmont (13-1, 3-0). Hannah Rogers made 19 kills, Chelsea VanDyk had 16 kills and three block solos and Cora Schroeder had 11 kills with 18 digs for the Lady Scots (7-6, 0-2), who got 49 assists and 22 digs from Stephanie Kirkpatrick, 23 digs from Estes Carlson and 14 and 13 digs from Mariah Corney and Jaclyn Stuart.

Running

• Tennessee Wesleyan's Leah Chance and Arnold Mutuse were the AAC cross country runners of the week after she finished second and he finished third in the Berea Invitational meet last weekend.

Softball

• Georgia is entering the final two weeks of its prep softball regular season, and the top seed for one of the four area regions remains to be settled. Northwest Whitfield and Heritage will decide 7B-AAAA's regular-season champion Thursday when they meet for the second time. Heritage (20-5, 7-1) rallied to topple the Lady Bruins (22-3, 6-1) at Heritage two weeks ago. The Generals are coming off an upset loss against LaFayette, while Northwest had to rally to beat the Lady Ramblers last week after losing 9-1 to Calhoun in a nonregion contest. The winner Thursday will need just one win in the region tournament (starting Oct. 5 in Dalton) to make the state playoffs. Ringgold, Calhoun and Gordon Lee are undefeated in 5-AAA, 7-AA and 6-A, respectively, and have earned top tournament seeds barring major surprises.

Baseball

• McMinn Central is hosting a Carson-Newman University baseball intrasquad session and clinic Saturday. The NCAA Division II Eagles will practice from 10:45 till 11:45 a.m. and then scrimmage from noon until 2. A two-hour clinic will follow with CNU coach Tom Griffin, his assistants and Eagles players. Further information can be obtained from McMinn Central coach Travis Hart at 423-829-6854.

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