Around the Region: No. 1 Oklahoma State heads 23-team Southern Scuffle field at UTC

UTC's new wrestling room.
UTC's new wrestling room.

Oklahoma State heads the 23-team field for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Southern Scuffle wrestling tournament Jan. 1-2. The Cowboys are ranked No. 1 in the Intermat Tournament Preseason Top 25 and are coming off a runner-up finish in last season's NCAA tournament. Other members of that Top 25 that will be in the Scuffle are No. 5 Missouri, No. 7 Cornell, No. 10 Minnesota, No. 12 Stanford, No. 18 Northern Iowa, No. 19 North Carolina, No. 20 Lehigh and No. 23 Penn. Competitors include 76 wrestlers with preseason Top 25 rankings, among them 25 All-Americans and three NCAA champions.

Volleyball

- UTC outlasted The Citadel 3-2 in a Southern Conference volleyball match Friday at Maclellan Gym. The set scores were 25-14, 25-16, 22-25, 20-25, 15-10. Miranda Elpers had 16 kills and Brianna Anderson had 15 kills and 20 digs for UTC (12-10, 5-4), while Kristy Wieser made 12 kills, Lauren Greenspoon had 32 assists and 15 digs, Rachel Petkosh had 19 digs and Madison Bergren had 18 assists and 11 digs. Moriah Smith had 25 kills and 15 digs and Priscilla Irizarry had 40 assists for the Bulldogs (8-17, 1-8).

- North Alabama beat visiting Lee University 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-20) in Gulf South Conference volleyball Friday and rose to 20-4 overall, 10-3 in the league. Brooke Wilsman had nine kills and 11 digs, Sadie Johnson had 14 assists and MaKayla Beebe had 14 digs to lead Lee (9-11, 5-7). Silvia Sartori added seven kills. Natasha Fomina had 16 kills for UNA.

- Bryan College lost 3-0 (25-10, 25-12, 25-10) to fifth-ranked Lindsey Wilson in the latter's tournament Friday evening in Columbia, Ky., and then dropped to 15-14 for the season with a 3-1 defeat (20-25, 25-22, 25-14, 26-24) by St. Thomas. Against the Florida team, Mariah Dunlop and Rachel Mosley had 10 and nine kills, Shelby Enochs had 31 assists and 11 digs and Kayla Rymer and Eryn Walker had 19 and 15 digs.

Soccer

- UTC lost 1-0 in SoCon women's soccer Friday at Virginia Military Institute. Sierra Brewer headed a corner kick into the net in the 20th minute for VMI (7-10, 4-4), and that held up as the Keydets had a 25-14 advantage in shots and a 9-7 edge in on-goal attempts. Katie Emig made eight saves for the Mocs (6-9-2, 4-3-1), who end their regular season Sunday at UNC Greensboro.

- The Lee soccer teams beat visiting Mississippi College in a GSC doubleheader Friday, 1-0 in the men's game and 3-1 in the women's. Samaan Williams one-timed a David Perez pass into the goal from close range in the 65th minute for the Flames (9-5-1, 4-2-1) against the Choctaws (9-2-1, 7-1). Then Mia Hollingsworth, Kinsey Cichowitz and Lauren Peters scored second-half goals for the Lady Flames (11-2-1, 8-1), the last two assisted by Summer Lanter and McKenzie Bricker.

- Piedmont College ended the Covenant women's seven-match winning streak with a 1-0 USA South win in Demorest, Ga. The Lady Scots' stretch of 640-plus game minutes without allowing a goal ended when Cassidy Reich scored for Piedmont (11-5-1, 10-2-1) off a corner kick with 14 minutes to go. Covenant is 13-3, 11-2.

- Dalton State won 1-0 in overtime at Brenau in SSAC women's soccer, lifting the Roadrunners to 7-5-1, 2-3 in the league, in their inaugural season.

Tennis

- UTC doubles partners Delaney Edwards and Sydney Patton beat the No. 5 seeds (Anki Wind and Hanna Sohn of Memphis) 8-6 in the round of 16 Friday before losing 8-2 to Austin Peay's Claudia and Lydia Garcia in the ITA Ohio Valley Regional at Murfreesboro. Patton also won a consolation singles match against a Xavier player, 6-2, 6-2, while Caroline Hall lost a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 battle against No. 5 Eva Repic of Tennessee in the main singles draw. UTC has one player, Michael Birnbaum, going today in the consolation singles bracket of the men's Ohio Valley Regional in Knoxville. He defeated Ayed Zatar of Middle Tennessee State on Friday, 7-5, 6-2, and faces Vanderbilt's Tate Allwardt this morning.

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