The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team opened its season Friday night with a 3-2 loss to Valparaiso in the Chattanooga Classic presented by the downtown Hampton Inn & Suites. The set scores were 16-25, 25-23, 15-25, 25-22, 16-14. Kristy Wieser and Allie Davenport each made 15 kills and Briana Reed had 14 for UTC, which got 17 digs each from Reed and Davenport and 56 assists with 15 digs from Lauren Greenspoon. Wieser was in on eight blocks. Emily Campbell had 19 kills and Allison Ketcham and Taylor Graboski added 14 apiece for Valpo, and Kelsey Berrington had 48 assists and matched Ketcham’s 16 digs to go with Morganne Longoria‘s 23 digs. In the earlier match, Troy defeated Eastern Kentucky 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 25-14). Today, UTC plays Troy at 12:30 and EKU at 7 in Maclellan Gym.
* Dalton State opened its volleyball season Friday in the Lindsey Wilson Classic in Columbia, Ky., with a 3-1 loss to the University of the Cumberlands and a 3-1 win over Cumberland University. Michala Askew had 21 assists and 14 digs, Savannah Nelson registered 10 kills and Kianna Delaney and Anna Metzler had eight and seven kills and 10 and nine digs for DSC in the 26-24, 24-26, 25-20, 23-16 defeat. Marta Guntin had 17 digs with six kills, and Clarissa Weber added 13 assists. In the Roadrunners’ bounce-back 23-25, 25-15, 25-10, 27-25 victory, Askew had 35 assists and 15 digs, Guntin had 13 kills and 14 digs, Metzler had 11 kills and 21 digs and Delaney had eight kills and nine digs.
* Former Bryan College coach Leo Sayles recorded his 200th career collegiate win as Gardner-Webb opened its volleyball season Friday night with a 3-2 win at William & Mary, and Katie Loftin from East Hamilton High School had 17 digs and two aces in the victory. Sayles has 47 wins at the North Carolina school, as he begins his fifth season there. He was 153-111 in seven seasons at Bryan, going 70-14 his last five years. Gardner-Webb plays Sept. 12 at UTC.
Soccer
* UTC lost 1-0 at Kennesaw State in women’s soccer Friday night, giving the Mocs two losses by the same score in their two matches under new coach Gavin McKinney. The Owls outshot them 19-3 with a 6-1 edge in shots on goal. The score came on an header by Abby Roth from an Ida Hepsoe corner kick just 1:42 into the second half. Goalkeeper Katie Emig made five saves for UTC, which hosts Elon at 1 p.m. Sunday. “As a whole I felt we worked extremely hard as a group,” McKinney said in a UTC release. “In the second half we created some really good opportunities for ourselves. Going forward we need to add in that quality.” Two of the Mocs’ three second-half shots almost went into the net, one by Skylar Brewer and a later one by Rachel Lindsay from a setup by Brewer and Amanda Ortiz.