The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Samantha Caswell from Baylor School was honored as the women's tennis freshman of the year in the Southern Conference, and her sister Harper Caswell at Furman joined her on the all-freshman team and the all-conference second team. Harper made the latter at No. 5 singles, while Samantha was second-team at No. 1 doubles with first-team UTC singles player Kayla Jones. Jones is 13-6 in singles (5-1 in SoCon play) in the spring semester and 16-3 with Samantha Caswell, who is 15-5 in singles with a 5-1 mark at No. 4 in league matches. The 17-3 Mocs face Western Carolina at 1 p.m. Friday in the conference tournament at Greenville, S.C.
Golf
* Lee University still is a few months away from competing for official Gulf South Conference and NCAA Division II championships, but the Cleveland school's men's golf team outplayed all the rest in the league tournament this week at Tunica, Miss., and the Lady Flames finished second to West Florida. Peyton Sliger was the medalist at 215 for 54 holes in leading the Lee men to an 866, 10 shots better than official GSC representative West Florida. Also for the Flames in their fifth team victory in 11 2014-15 tournaments, Shea Sylvester and Taylor Davis tied for third at 217 and Cory Sheppard tied for 12th at 223. In the women's tournament, Lee's Bernadette Little and Caroline Moore tied for seventh at 230 and Madison Alexander shot 234 with Sam Burrus at 236.
* Dalton State's Sean Elliott was the NAIA national men's golfer of the week after leading the Roadrunners to the Southern States Athletic Conference championship as the medalist with a 54-hole 200 at the Montgomery (Ala.) Country Club, including a 64 in the final round. He is the first Dalton State athlete to earn a national NAIA weekly honor. "This is an awesome achievement for Sean and Dalton State," coach Ben Rickett said in a school release. "He is proving week in, week out that he can compete at the highest level." The Roadrunners will play in the NAIA national tournament May 19-22 at the LPGA course in Daytona Beach, Fla.
* Tennessee Tech's Maddi Everts from Notre Dame High School finished eighth individually at 228 Wednesday in the Ohio Valley Conference women's golf tournament at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Hampton Cove at Owens Cross Roads, Ala. Austin Peay's Jessica Cathey from Soddy-Daisy was 16th. Eastern Kentucky was the team winner at 902 with Jacksonville State one shot behind and Tech third out of 10 teams at 914.
Softball
* No. 3 seed Tennessee Wesleyan beat No. 2 Bryan College 7-3 in a winners-bracket semifinal of the Appalachian Athletic Conference softball tournament Wednesday in Kingsport, Tenn. Tuesday, Bryan beat Milligan 10-0 as AAC pitcher of the year Kaitie Sims threw a one-hitter and Heidi Daniel hit a three-run home run and Wesleyan downed Truett-McConnell 8-0 in six innings with Brittany Kilduff pitching a three-hitter, Amy Lokker going 2-for-2 with a homer and three RBIs and Calli Cross going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and three runs. Also for TWC in the first round, Stephanie Bridges was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI and Mackenzie Hopkins doubled in two runs. For Bryan, Sarah Hundley was 3-for-3 and scored twice, Olivia Gore was 2-for-3 and scored three runs and Becca Zimmerman was 1-for-1 with two walks and two RBIs. Wednesday, Bridges was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and Kayla Stevens was 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs against Bryan (28-12), which had no one with multiple hits. Alexis Adams and Cross each was 2-for-4 as well for the Lady Bulldogs (29-7), who fifth-seeded St. Andrews in the winners-bracket final at 3 p.m. today. St. Andrews won 2-0 Wednesday against eighth seed Columbia, which had stunned top-seeded Reinhardt 8-0 in the opening round. Reinhardt (28-16) edged Union College 7-6 and faces Bryan at 1 p.m.
* Qiley Lewis was 4-for-5, Holley Gray was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs and Amanda Lynn, Lexie Dean, Kaylie Drew and NiaRaye Ceaser had two hits apiece in Lee University's 13-2 softball win Wednesday over Tennessee Temple at Warner Park. Dean had a triple and Drew batted in two runs for the Lady Flames (29-16).
Baseball
* The Lee University baseball team won 5-0 Wednesday night at Young Harris as Chevis Hoover and three relief pitchers pitched a combined six-hitter and Ben Holland and Luke Toms each had two hits and two RBIs with a homer. Siosi Poti also had two hits for the Flames (26-17-1).
Volleyball
* Coahulla Creek High School senior Gabrielle Henderson has signed a letter of intent to play volleyball for Dalton State College this coming season. "She is local and has a lot of volleyball talent. We are super excited about having Gabby on our team," Roadrunners coach Bruna Langner said in a DSC release. "She is an awesome player who works hard, loves her teammates and does exceptionally well in school." Henderson began playing volleyball at the end of her eighth-grade year, the release noted, and said she's "the player I am today" largely because of Coahulla coach Julie Norton and club coach Kadi Dodson. "She's an all-around player but she will probably play more in the back row for us," Langner said.