After being selected as Southern Conference player of the week, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior outfielder Nicole Osterman on Wednesday was named national college softball player of the week by ESPNW, the network’s women’s sports website. Osterman hit .529 with four home runs, six extra-base hits and 14 RBIs as the Mocs swept all five of their games at the South Alabama Invitational last weekend. In UTC’s 3-1 win over No. 22 South Alabama, Osterman scored twice and was 1-for-2 with a homer, and she wrapped up the weekend by going 2-for-3 with two home runs and six RBIs in a win over Ball State. UTC will make its home debut this weekend as the host team of the Frost Classic. The Mocs will open Friday with games against Eastern Kentucky at 1:30 p.m. and South Dakota State at 4.
Basketball
* Tennessee Wesleyan’s Jenna Adams and Bryan College’s Brandon Cole have been voted the Appalachian Athletic Conference basketball players of the year for the 2014-15 season. Bryan’s Megan Billingsby and TWC’s Armeka Booker and Shira Buley joined Adams on the women’s All-AAC first team, and TWC’s Devante Jenkins and Stephen Kite Jr. were among those with Cole on the men’s first team. Bryan’s Keila Formont and Kristin Lane, Reinhardt’s Erika Woodfin from Dade County and Truett-McConnell’s Rhande Haskett from Ridgeland were women’s second-team selections. Bryan’s Oteriah Lee was the men’s freshman of the year and joined on the all-freshman team by Lions teammate Tyler Yoder and TWC’s Justin Simmons. TWC’s Jeff Rice was the women’s coach of the year, and Buley and Melanie Barker from his Lady Bulldogs along with Reinhardt’s April Besley from Dalton were on the all-defensive team. Champions of Character picks included Bryan’s Kelsey Brooks and Cole and Wesleyan’s Buley and Arden Beeler. Cole is leading all of NAIA Division II with 29.3 points and 11.3 rebounds a game, and he enters AAC tournament play today in Kingsport, Tenn., with 1,959 career points. Adams has averaged 17.8 points and 10.8 rebounds a game and is fourth nationally with 302 total rebounds. As the tourney got under way with play-in games Wednesday, St. Andrews won 72-62, Milligan won 65-44 and Bluefield won 59-36 in women’s matchups and the Montreat men beat St. Andrews 75-68 in overtime and seventh seed Bluefield needed two overtimes to slip past 10th seed Point, 87-85.
Golf
* Lee University junior Bernadette Little was the medalist in the Lady Cougar Invitational golf tournament hosted Monday and Tuesday by Columbus (Ga.) State at the Country Club of Columbus. Lee finished fifth out of 11 teams, but Little won individually by two strokes with a 155 (77-78). “I was really happy for Bernadette,” Lee coach John Maupin said in a Lee website posting. “She’s a great competitor and I feel like she worked very hard this week to get the win. Not everything went perfectly for her, but she just kept moving forward and saved shots when possible.” The Lady Flames’ Madison Alexander and Caroline Moore shot 164 and 165 to finish 14th and tied for 15th.