Area Sports Notes: Softball Mocs switching states for season openers

Assorted Sports Equipment on Black
Assorted Sports Equipment on Black

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga softball team won't be opening its season in Louisiana this weekend after all. The Mocs instead will be back at the Dot Richardson National Collegiate Softball Invitational in Clermont, Fla., which has been their usual opening site in recent years. They will face Morgan State and Detroit Mercy there Friday and Liberty and Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday. Louisiana-Monroe officials passed along a bleak weather forecast for the weekend and gave the participating teams the chance to opt out, and UTC took it and then found that the five teams in the NCSI welcomed a sixth. "We helped them start that tournament five or six years ago and had told them we weren't going this time only to take a one-year break," Mocs coach Frank Reed said Wednesday. "So when we called them, they worked it out. The bus company was already lined up and said they didn't care where we went. (Tournament officials) were able to give us only four games, and we'll be staying about 20 miles away, but that's all right. We're going from a lot of rain and temperatures in the 50s to sunshine and 80s. This was one of those deals where loyalty pays off."

» Lee University's home-opening softball doubleheader scheduled for Wednesday against Lincoln Memorial was moved to today, starting at 2 p.m. The Covenant College doubleheader scheduled at Birmingham-Southern was postponed due to rainy weather, but a makeup date has not been set.

Basketball

» The Bryan College women's basketball team, leading the Appalachian Athletic Conference and ranked 23rd in the NAIA Division II poll, blistered visiting Milligan 88-69 on Wednesday for the Lady Lions' 12th victory in 13 games. Freshmen Deandra Luna and Shayla Ludy scored 27 and 26 points, Luna adding six assists, and Tonesha Allison had nine rebounds with nine points for Bryan (21-6, 18-3). Milligan won the men's game 82-73, ending a five-game win streak for the Lions (17-10, 11-7), who got 24 points and seven rebounds from EJ Bush, 16 points and four assists from Oteriah Lee and 13 points and five assists from Clay Hertel.

» Reinhardt's second-place, 25th-ranked women stayed within two games of Bryan in the AAC standings with a 68-45 win at Tennessee Wesleyan, and Jada Hubbard from Heritage High School was the leader with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and four assists. Bethany Headrick from Ringgold High was second in scoring for Reinhardt (20-8, 16-5) with nine points and matched Calhoun resident JessAnn Nix for rebounding honors with eight. Madison Walkup led TWU (16-9, 15-7) with nine points and 14 rebounds. Wesleyan won the men's game 87-78 with 23 points and five assists from Jalen Oliver, 16 points from Darius Filer and 12 points and eight rebounds from Kenny Dean. Those three were a combined 22-of-29 from the field. Jordan Hall also had five assists.

» Caleb Haynes had 24 points and eight rebounds, and his tip-in with 3.1 seconds remaining gave Covenant a 68-66 USA South men's victory at Berea. It was the fifth win in a row for the Scots (13-8, 8-5). Bailey Spragg made six steals in the win.

Track & Field

» Tennessee Wesleyan's Devonte Fletcher and Brandon Massey were, respectively, the AAC men's indoor track athlete and field athlete of the week for competition Jan. 29-Feb. 4. Fletcher, a junior, won the 200- and 400-meter dashes at the Cedarville Collegiate Invitational, and he had an NAIA nationals "A" qualifying time of 22.26 seconds in the 200 - the 13th best NAIA mark this season. Sophomore Massey was second to his teammate in both events and also was second in the long jump with a school-record leap of 6.60 meters.

Tennis

» Lee University's Carley Sickinger was the Gulf South Conference's first women's tennis freshman of the week for 2018 after winning at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles with Nicole Shennett in the Lady Flames' 5-4 win at Erskine. The team won despite playing shorthanded with two starters out sick.

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