Manker Patten professional Wesley Cash of Chattanooga won/lost 6-1, 6-1 Tuesday against fourth-seeded Sal Castillo of San Antonio in the singles semifinals of the USTA National Men's 55 Clay Court Championships at Savannah, Ga.; and Cash and Mark Vines of Lynchburg, Va., won 6-1, 6-3 in a doubles quarterfinal against Castillo and Iowa resident Eric Bligard. Vines and Cash, the top seeds, won all four USTA 55 nationals last year, and Cash has two titles with another partner in 2013 and finished third in singles in the grass court tournament. Last year, Castillo prevented Vins from winning a golden slam in singles play.
Golf
• In addition to the 10 golfers with Hamilton County ties profiled in last Sunday's sports section, Hunter Green from Rhea County will begin PGA qualifying soon for a potential 2014 spot on the Web.com Tour. The former Middle Tennessee State University standout - a conference golfer of the year who won five college tournaments - will join Adam Mitchell, Thomas Smith and Ryan Thornton in Oct. 22-25 qualifying at Callaway Gardens. Green made the top 50 in the NGA Tour money list despite playing only six tournaments.
• David Noll Jr. from Dalton is part of the 12-man Georgia amateur golf team announced this week for the Southeastern Challenge Match Oct. 19-20 at Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee at Eatonton, Ga. The Georgians will compete against teams from Florida and Alabama. Noll has four top-10 finishes in the four GSGA-sanctioned events played in 2013, including second place last Sunday in the Atlanta Amateur Match Play.
• Baylor School graduate Mikey Feher from Signal Mountain and fellow Lipscomb University freshman Sydney Chung tied for eighth at 214 in leading the Bisons to the championship of the recent Murray State Invitational golf tournament. Feher shot 70-74-70. Lipscomb shot 857 for 54 holes and beat Alabama State in a two-hole playoff.
• With a 142 (74-68) that was the lowest 36-hole competition total for a Sewanee men's golfer since 2006, freshman Timothy Walter finished third Tuesday in the Royal Lakes/Oglethorpe Fall Invitational tournament at Flowery Branch, Ga. The Tigers finished seventh out of 15 teams at 598 and had the second-best aggregate second round (293). Another Sewanee freshman, Alex Wedding, was 17th at 148.
Volleyball
• UTC won 3-0 against visiting Samford in Southern Conference volleyball Wednesday night in Maclellan Gym. Set scores were 28-26, 25-23, 25-17. Sophomore Briana Reid led the Mocs offense with 12 kills, and fellow sophomore Lauren Gainer added seven kills. on defense, Melissa Green and Catherine Chason each had 14 digs and Chason had 19 assists. Freshman Anne Bachman has 12 assists in the win.
• The Area 4-AAA high school volleyball tournament begins today at North Murray. The top-seeded team is seventh-ranked Sonoraville (35-8), which went undefeated in the area regular season. The Lady Phoenix is set to take on eighth-seeded Cartersville at 5 p.m. "I feel good going into it," Sonoraville coach Trace Vaughn said. "I think our biggest obstacle is challenging ourselves a little bit. We've been playing so many great teams in Atlanta recently. We play up for them and then come back to our area and it's hard to get the intensity level to stay the same." Senior Carrie Cheeks and junior Haley Ponder lead the hitting for Sonoraville and senior Kristi Vaughn paces the team in assists and aces. Sophomore Savannah Wilbanks leads in digs. The other higher-seeded teams in the eight-team tournament, which resumes Saturday at 10 a.m. and ends with that day's championship match, are No. 2 North Murray, No. 3 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe and No. 4 Adairsville. The top four finishers move on to the state tournament.
Soccer
• The two best men's soccer teams in the Appalachian Athletic Conference faced off Wednesday afternoon in Athens, Tenn., and host Tennessee Wesleyan won 3-2 over Bryan College, which moved up to No. 21 in the NAIA rankings this week. TWC (7-5, 5-1) took an early lead on a goal by Morgan Marsh assisted by Martyn Freestone, but Gustavo Angel Tamayo tied the match before halftime. In the second period, Laurence Hutchinson scored in the 54th minute with assists by Ross Nelson and Ryan Ejezie, and Ross put the game out of reach for the Bulldogs in the 80th minute on a goal assisted by Jerome Headon and Garrett Koon. Bryan (8-2, 5-1) got back within one on a 90th minute goal by Alan da Costa assisted by Joel Glover and Josh Oldroyd, but ran out of time before they could tie the match.
Softball
• The Lady Moc RBI Club will sponsor UTC's annual Blue-Gold softball game Saturday at 11 a.m. with a cookout following for everyone present. There is no charge for either event, but cookout donations will be accepted.