Sewanee senior Lindsey Liles was the Southern Athletic Association women's tennis player of the year, the league office announced Tuesday, and freshman Jack Gray from Baylor School was the men's newcomer of the year. He made the All-SAA second team while senior Eric Roddy, also from Baylor, and junior Avery Schober were first-team selections. Roddy and Gray are ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division III doubles. Three players from the nationally 12th-ranked Sewanee women's team were first-team All-SAA - Liles, Clementina Davila and Christina Merchant - and Taylor Childress was a second-team choice. Maggie Crumbliss from Baylor and Annie Veron received honorable mention. The female Tigers are 21-5 with a 14-match win streak. They will begin national tournament play this weekend at No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis but with a first-round bye, and the 36th-ranked Sewanee men (18-6) will be in the Atlanta Regional hosted by No. 1 Emory. They too will begin with a second-round match, against No. 12 Trinity of Texas on Saturday. In St. Louis, the Sewanee women will play Friday against Thursday's winner between Coe and Grinnell.
Softball/Baseball
* University of Tennessee at Chattanooga seniors Criket Blanco and Sam Taylor and freshmen Amanda Beltran and Jordan Fortel made the 2016 All-Southern Conference softball second team, and Ashley Conner joined Fortel and Beltran on the all-freshman team. The Mocs (28-27, 14-10) are seeded sixth in the SoCon tournament and are scheduled to face third seed Western Carolina at 3 p.m. today in Greensboro, N.C. Second baseman Blanco has a .335 batting average, 56 hits, seven home runs, 12 doubles and a team-high 35 RBIs. Center fielder Taylor is hitting .347 with 60 hits, 13 doubles and five homers, while Fortel - picked as a designated player - is batting .331 with 53 hits, six homers, 13 doubles and 32 RBIs and utility player Beltran has 21 hits and 20 RBIs in 33 appearances as a catcher, DP and first baseman.
* After losing its first game Monday, Chattanooga State was playing late Tuesday night to reach the final day of the TCCAA/NJCAA Region 7 softball tournament at Columbia State, but the Chattanooga State and Cleveland State baseball teams that tied for third place in the regular season both went out in two games. Cleveland State (30-21) lost 7-4 to Motlow in an elimination game Tuesday, and Chattanooga State (34-15) followed a 9-7 loss late Monday to Columbia State with a 5-1 defeat by Southwest Tennessee. The Lady Tigers (42-19) rebounded from a 7-3 loss Monday to Volunteer State with wins over Dyersburg State and Jackson State, the latter in eight innings. Against Vol, Lillie McCray had two hits and two RBIs and Shannon Plese and Colbie Thomas each had two hits and scored a run.
* Top-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan lost 1-0 to Union (Ky.) in the Appalachian Athletic Conference baseball tournament Tuesday night in Kingsport, Tenn., after No. 2 seed Bryan (37-17) lost 5-4 to third seed Point (29-27). In the Lions' loss Preston King was 3-for-4 with an RBI, Evan Speicher was 3-for-5 and scored a run and Justin Morhardt had two hits and an RBI. TWC (40-12) got only two hits and gave up the lone run in the bottom of the ninth. Ryan Hartman allowed two hits and struck out eight in seven innings.
Wrestling
* UTC finished 15th in Division I for wrestling team grade point average for 2015-16, the fourth time the Mocs have made the top 15 under coach Heath Eslinger. With two Academic All-Americans, John Lampe and Jared Johnson, UTC had an aggregate 3.196 in the list released Monday by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Lampe ended his career with a 3.99 GPA and a degree in history and is working on a master's in education. Heavyweight Johnson, a two-time Academic All-American with a 3.73 GPA, will finish his eligibility as a grad student, as he received a chemical engineering degree last Saturday.