University of Tennessee at Chattanooga seniors Manuel Barroetavena and Jenna Nurik are the Southern Conference’s first tennis players of the week for 2013. Nurik is 5-0 at No. 1 singles for the Lady Mocs, who are 5-0 for the first time since 1991, and the Roswell, Ga., resident is 4-1 with Kaylene Chadwell at No. 2 doubles. Barroetavena, who’s from Buenos Aries, Argentina, is 7-0 in singles for the 5-2 Mocs and 4-1 with Jackson Tresnan in doubles. Barroetavena, a Steve Baras Memorial Scholarship winner, began with four wins at No. 3 singles and since has added one at No. 1 and two at No. 2. The UTC teams host Lee University on Saturday at the Champions Club.
Baseball
• In a matchup Tuesday of two of the top three teams in the NAIA baseball poll, host and defending national champion Tennessee Wesleyan scored two runs with the help of three walks and a hit batter in the eighth inning and edged Lee University 4-3. Wes Minton was 2-for-3 with a home run, a double and two RBIs and Brad Carpenter was 2-for-3 with an RBI for TWC (4-3), while Brandon Rader was 2-for-3 and scored a run and Brady Renner and Karsten Strieby each was 2-for-5 for Lee (7-2). Strieby and Roberto Duran had RBIs. Brian Bardis was the winning pitcher in relief.
• The Gordon College baseball team jumped to a six-run lead and held on for a 6-5 win Tuesday at Cleveland State. Chase Edwards had the first RBI for the Cougars (2-2) with a single in the three-run fourth inning, and he hit a two-out double and scored on a Cody Hiefnar single (his second RBI) in the eighth to cut the gap to 6-5. Evan Speicher, who already had an RBI and a run scored, almost tied it with a single to center, but a strong throw nailed Hiefnar at the plate.
• Covenant College sophomore outfielder Scott Gillespie was the National Christian College Athletic Association Division I baseball player of the week after going 4-for-7 with a double and three runs scored in the Scots’ season-opening doubleheader sweep of Berea College last Saturday.