Bryan, TWC in AAC semifinals andother sports news

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Daniel Brantley scored four goals as sixth-seeded Bryan College hammered third seed Union College 7-2 at Barbourville, Ky., in the quarterfinal round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference men's soccer tournament Saturday night, and fourth-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan also advanced with a convincing victory, 4-0 at home against fifth seed Bluefield. Bryan (9-7-2) will face second seed St. Andrews (14-1-1) and Wesleyan (10-6-2) will take on top-seeded host Reinhardt (13-2-1) in semifinals Wednesday at Waleska, Ga. TWC was the preseason favorite to win the league, and 2013 AAC tournament champion Bryan tied Reinhardt for second in the coaches' poll.

• Tennessee Wesleyan used a goal and two assists by Alexis Dalberth to defeat Columbia (S.C.) College 3-1 Saturday and reach the AAC women's soccer tournament semifinals Thurday at Laurinburg, N.C. The third-seeded Lady Bulldogs (11-7-1) will take on second seed Reinhardt (13-3-2) at noon, followed by Point (10-3-5) against top seed St. Andrews (13-2-2), which beat ninth-seeded Bryan 4-1 on Saturday.

Running

• Even with its three front runners disqualified along with three from other schools for a wrong turn that cut off part of the course, Tennessee Wesleyan placed six in the official top 10 and handily won the AAC men's cross country meet Saturday at Fort Bluff Camp near Dayton, Tenn. Wesleyan's women finished second to Milligan in the 5-kilometer race and had the individual winner and runner of the year Hannah Rhodes plus Robbiccaa Williams in fourth place and Leah Chance in fifth. They were all-conference. Rhodes' time was 18:50.28. TWC's Shawn Jakubowski was the men's coach of the year, and the Bulldogs' Chad Whitehead (second in the 8k at 26:39.18), Samuel Hawkins (third), Jacob Simmons (fourth), Caleb Young (sixth), Tim Murphy (ninth) and Austin Wiseman (10th) were all-conference.

Baseball

• Versatile Cody Tait from Loganville (Ga.) High School signed scholarship papers last Friday to continue his baseball career at Tennessee Temple University. Tait learned of Temple on a SCORE International trip to the Dominican Republic a few years ago, when he spent time with SCORE founder and former Temple coach and athletic director Ron Bishop. Bishop, who died this year, stirred Tait's interest in the Chattanooga school, and when he started looking at colleges he couldn't shake the appeal. "When I first came to Temple I could see it like a second home to me," he said, praising its Christian base, educational offerings and developing sports program. Playing second base, third base and some in left field, Tait hit .333 and stole about 30 bases for Loganville last year. "He can play a lot of positions and he's a left-handed stick who hit in the 2-hole for a very good team," TTU coach Greg Bartley said. "He adds an athletic dimension and comes from an outstanding program. He knows how to win. And the main thing about Cody is seeing how the Lord has worked this out through a man we all respected." Tait said he plans to major in education and history with a minor in psychology. "I want to be a teacher and coach baseball," he said.

Volleyball

• Rachel Harper from Boyd-Buchanan had 16 kills, 15 digs and three aces for the Carson-Newman volleyball team in a 3-1 win over Anderson and 18 kills, 19 digs and seven aces in a 3-2 survival against Newberry this past weekend, when setter Kristen Pickett from Cleveland High totaled 109 assists and surpassed 1,000 career digs for the 25-5 Lady Eagles. Cleveland's Payton Tipton had 17 digs against Erskine on Saturday as King University closed out its regular season with a 20-10 record.

• Coastal Georgia, the SSAC regular-season champion, defeated Dalton State 3-0 in volleyball Saturday in Brunswick, Ga. The Lady Mariners are 29-0 overall and 18-0 in the SSAC going into the league tournament. Kianna Delaney had nine kills and Alyne Bianchi had eight for DSC (15-11, 10-8) in the 25-20, 25-21, 25-22 match, and Karly Newman had 14 digs.

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