Covenant College sophomore Matthew Harvie is the 2016 USA South men’s tennis player of the year, and Covenant’s John Hirte is the women’s coach of the year with Aly Hall a first-team all-conference player.
The awards were announced Thursday. The Scots’ Chris Cox was a second-team men’s choice, Annie DeLuca and Claire Luger received women’s honorable mention, and Trey Wood and Lindsay Geving were Covenant’s representatives on the all-sportsmanship team. Harvie was 13-4 this season at No. 1 singles, including 9-1 against USAS opponents, and he and Cox were 11-5 together in doubles while Cox was 11-7 in singles, 7-3 in league play. Hall was 11-2 with a 7-1 league record at No. 1 singles in the regular season for the Lady Scots, who are 14-5 and 11-1 in the USAS under Hirte and seeded second for the league tournament in Rocky Mount, N.C. They play in the semifinals Saturday morning.
UTC Athletics
– The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga held its annual Coca-Cola Scrappy Awards program Thursday night to honor school accomplishments from the spring 2015 season through the 2015-16 winter sports, and football quarterback Jacob Huesman and basketball point guard Alicia Payne were the student-athletes of the year with men’s basketball coach Matt McCall the UTC coach of the year and his Mocs the team of the year. Freshman wrestler Kamaal Shakur was the newcomer of the year, football running back Derrick Craine was the scholar-athlete of the year and had the performance of the year, and tennis player Luke Saunders got the leadership award. The volleyball team had the victory of the year and the comeback of the year, and softball catcher Anyssa Robles’ winning homer in the Southern Conference tournament semifinals was the play of the year. Strength and conditioning staffer Rhonda Watts got the behind-the-scenes award, Libby Byers was professor of the year and Jeremy Bryson was the fan of the year.
Golf