Rachel HarperRachel Harper, the former Boyd-Buchanan School standout who completed her Carson-Newman volleyball career this past season, has been nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year. She is one of 93 nominees from Division II, and 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions will be pared to the nine finalists before the winner is announced Oct. 18 in Indianapolis. Harper is one of only two volleyball players from D-II’s Southeast Region on the list. Harper exceeded 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs and served 136 aces in her Eagles career. She led the South Atlantic Conference in 2014 with 4.5 points per set.
* Setter Nicole Rayburn from Rome High School is the latest addition to the Georgia Northwestern volleyball team for the 2015 season. Rayburn, who began playing the sport as an eighth-grader after previously taking part in softball, basketball and competition cheerleading, was focusing on volleyball by her sophomore year. She will attend classes at GNTC’s Floyd County campus. “She has a great work ethic,” Lady Bobcats coach Carrie Powell said in a release. “We desperately need a setter after losing Rachel (McGill), and I thnk she’ll be a really good fit for us.”
Auto Racing
* More than 100 cars competed in eight Heads-Up Pro Start classes Saturday night at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip, and Tom Neubert from Corryton, Tenn., won the $2,500 top prize in the 4:70 class with a 4.70-second run in his 1957 Chevrolet powered by a modified Chevy big-block engine. Stacy Roderick from Charleston was second with a 4.68 burst in his 1990 Corvette. Mark Miles from Flintstone and Ronnie Clayton from Dayton were first and second in the 5:30 class, and Jim Nash of Ooltewah and Johnny Davis of Newport were the top two in 5:70. Dewayne Teague won the 6:00 class with Bobby Griffith second, and Daniel Stuts was first and Brandon Jones second in 7:00. Bobby Lloyd won the Super Pro class with Hugh Harris, Bobby Griffith and Adam Babcock taking the next three spots, and Stan Curvin was first with Steven Holloway second in the Foot Brake class. Mattie Keener from Dunlap was the Junior Dragster winner; Branson Jones was second.
* Jason Cardwell won the 25-lap Limited Late Model race from the pole Saturday night at the new I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, and Justin Summers finished like he started, in second. Darren Goins won for the sixth time this year in the Sportsman division, and Danny Bray won from the pole in B-Hobby, Allen Walker won for the third time and second in a row in Thunder, Kane Pelfrey won for the third straight time in Front Wheel Drive and Derrik Duggan prevailed in Four Cylinder.