The USTA's Southern Junior Cup tennis tournament for 14-, 16- and 18-under players begins this morning at the Champions Club and the Baylor School courts. Doubles and singles competition for the 162 players from nine state associations - nine boys and nine girls from each - will be held today, but Saturday will be all singles at the two sites and the event will conclude Sunday morning with doubles. The 12s age group competed in Chattanooga last weekend. Tennessee's representatives begin doubles play at 8 this morning and singles at 8:45 at Baylor.
Baseball
* Chattanooga native and former Free Press sportswriter Mark McCarter will be signing copies of his book "Never a Bad Game: Fifty Years of the Southern League" from when the gates open through the first four or five innings of the Chattanooga Lookouts home playoff game Saturday night against the Biloxi Shuckers. The game starts at 7:15. McCarter covered the Lookouts for years - starting with the return of pro baseball to the city in 1976 - and his $20 book includes multiple stories and personalities related to Chattanooga. He later covered the Huntsville Stars, who became the Shuckers this year, for the Huntsville Times.
Running
* Lee University sophomore Harold Smith from Bradley Central High School was the Gulf South Conference men's cross country runner of the week for his first-place finish among non-Division I runners in the Furman Classic last weekend. There were 19 Division II, Division III and NAIA teams represented, and Smith led the Flames to the team victory with his 24:58.56 finish in the 8-kilometer race. He was 10th and they were eighth out of 31 teams with Division I runners counted. "Harold really stepped it up. Running under 25 minutes for an 8k is an outstanding accomplishment," Lee coach Caleb Morgan said in a school release.
Volleyball
* Dalton State lost 3-1 (25-20, 25-23, 20-25, 25-19) to visiting Faulkner in Southern States Athletic Conference volleyball Thursday night. Kianna Delaney had 16 kills and Michala Askew had 30 assists for Dalton State (4-6, 0-3), while Rafaella Martin Petrunko and Marta Guntin had 15 and 10 digs.
* Maryville College edged visiting Covenant 3-2 in a matchup of USA South volleyball Lady Scots on Thursday. Ginny Moore had 23 kills and 14 digs and Schuyler Moore had 46 assists, nine kills and 15 digs in the 25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 15-12 defeat, while Chelsea VanDyk had 12 kills and four block solos. Morgan Opgenorth also had nine kills for Covenant (1-6), which has lost four five-setters, and Ariana Buchanan had 18 digs.