Former Lee University volleyball player Catherine Conley is one of two nominees from the Gulf South Conference for the honor of NCAA Woman of the Year. The other is Shorter's Elizabeth Dowd, also a volleyball standout. The award recognizes graduating student-athletes for outstanding athletics, academics, community service and leadership. Conley graduated magna cum laude from Lee this past spring and ranked in the GSC's top 12 in hitting percentage each of her last two seasons. She was active in numerous service projects, including Volley for a Cure, the Volley Skillz program and the Mercy's Door fashion show, and represented Lee at the GSC Student Advisory Committee's annual meeting in 2015. She was a leader in the school's communications and arts department.
- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had four athletic programs receive NCAA Academic Progress Rate public recognition awards this week for the 2015-16 school year, tying for the most for a Southern Conference school. The recognition is for being in the top 10 percent of all NCAA Division I members' APRs for each sport. The Mocs teams were women's basketball, women's tennis, women's cross country and women's track and field. The Mocs have had at least one program listed since the award began in 2011. This is the third year in a row with at least four teams recognized.
Golf
- Former all-conference Lee women's golfer Bernadette Little is now the men's and women's assistant for head coach John Maupin. A student assistant this past year, she succeeds former Lee All-American Hunter Vest from Walker Valley High School. "First of all, I want to thank Hunter for his dedication and commitment as our assistant coach the past two seasons," Maupin said in a Lee release, adding appreciation that Vest will continue "as a volunteer assistant while he begins his new profession." Of Little, he said, "She brings a lot to the table. She has high-level experience as a player, she's very knowledgeable about the game, she's as hard a worker as I have been around and she's the kind of person that you want around your student-athletes." A native of Nova Scotia in Canada, Little said she has "grown to love Lee and the athletic department and what it represents. I look forward to being a part of the men's and women's golf programs and working with Coach Maupin to help our players reach their full potential both on and off the golf course."
Soccer
- Bruce Holt and Dalton, Ga., native Nery Martinez have been hired as assistant coaches for soccer at Dalton State College. Martinez, a 2011 graduate of Dalton High School and three-year women's team captain at Point University, was an National Soccer Coaches Association of America first-team All-American as a freshman, when she was an all-tournament team member and the outstanding defensive player at the National Christian College Athletic Association national tournament. "She worked hard last year as a voluntary assistant, and I'm excited for her to become one of our top assistants," head coach Kerem Daser said in a release from Dalton State. "She's one of the best players to come out of Dalton-Whitfield County. I think the girls really look up to her; she'll get a lot out of the kids. She's hard-working, loyal and fiery. We also want to recruit northwest Georgia well, and she knows all the programs." Holt was a four-year starter in Athens, Ga., at Clarke Central High School, which won the 1999 GHSA Class AAAA state title and was ranked No. 1 in the nation, and he played for Furman University before transferring to Georgia State. He was an assistant at Georgia Military in 2010-11. "I got to coach him at Georgia State and RYSA Sporting FC," Daser said. "I think he's sharp and hard-working and Bruce has a lot of experience in academics."