The top four seeds in the men's open singles division are in the Tennessee Valley Open Championships semifinals at the Manker Patten Tennis Club after winning Friday, and three of the four women's open quarterfinals went as seeded. Among the women's winners was fourth-seeded Kayla Jones from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who prevailed 7-6, 6-3 over Bennett Dunn. The University of Alabama gang seeded ahead of Jones got wins from No. 1 Erin Routliffe and No. 2 Maya Jansen but a 6-4, 6-1, loss from No. 3 Carmen Blanco against Furman's Ansley Speaks. In the men's quarters, top-seeded Nathan Pasha and fourth seed Paul Oosterbaan from Georgia won in straight sets along with No. 2 Maxx Lipman from Florida and No. 3 Kyle Koch from South Carolina, although Pasha did need a second-set tiebreaker to finish off Jordan Cox.
Football
* UTC wound up eighth in the 2014 Football Championship Subdivision poll and is ranked in the same spot in the just-released Athlon Sports preseason Top 25 for 2015. Coach Russ Huesman's Mocs already were ranked No. 8 in the Sporting News preseason poll. Jacksonville State, No. 7 according to The Sporting News, is No. 4 for Athlon and visits UTC on Sept. 5. The Mocs return 16 starters and 42 lettermen from the 10-4 team that was undefeated in the Southern Conference and reached the 2014 FCS playoff quarterfinals.
Academics
* UTC set a school record with 35 athletes on the SoCon all-academic team for the spring semester. The school's previous spring standard was 33 in 2014. UTC was fourth in the league in the 2015 numbers even without fielding baseball or lacrosse teams. The other sports included are softball and men's and women's golf, tennis and outdoors track and field. The Mocs had 11 women's track athletes and seven in men's track on the all-academic team, led by senior Patrick O'Brien, junior Helenka Kis and sophomore Maddison Melchionna continuing their cumulative 4.0 grade point averages. Nine UTC tennis players made the list.
Fishing
* The kids bass tournament reported Thursday in the Times Free Press as taking place today at Marion County Park actually is set for next Saturday, from 8 a.m. until noon EDT. It costs $20 for a child/adult team and $5 for anyone extra in a boat, and more than one team can fish from the same boat. Bank fishing also will be allowed in designated areas. There will be a one-bass limit per team but prizes for all youngsters. Anyone interested can call Darren Nunley at 423-834-6944, Hensley Powell at 423-508-4033, David DuVall at 931-808-0845 or Ray Koon at 931-607-2530.