The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s golf schedule for 2016-17 was released Thursday, and it includes five tournaments each semester before the Southern Conference tournament April 23-25. Coach Colette Murray’s Mocs hope to be playing in an NCAA regional May 8-10 after having finished first or second in the last eight SoCon tourneys. Megan Woods returns as the league’s 2016 individual champion, along with two other starters, fellow junior Cristina Perez and sophomore Monica San Juan. They are joined by freshmen Maddy McDaniel, Holly Morgan and Maria Pineiro. The season starts with the Mercedes-Benz Championship Sept. 12-13 at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville and the Mason Rudolph Championships Sept. 16-18 at the Vanderbilt Legends Club. The Mocs go out of state to Charleston, S.C., for the Oct. 2-4 PowerAde Cougar Classic and will return to South Carolina for the Oct. 23-25 Palmetto Intercollegiate on Kiawah Island with the Memphis Women’s Intercollegiate in between. “It’s a very challenging start,” Murray said in a UTC release. “We have a really solid fall schedule that will, if we play well, hopefully set us up for a good spring.”
* The Dalton State women’s golf team was picked to win the Southern States Athletic Conference again in 2016-17, even with the loss of two NAIA All-Americans. But two All-Americans remain on coach Jim McGrew’s roster – Caroline Griffin and Katie Dalton – plus seniors Rachel Rebne and Carly Shane from the 2016 SSAC tournament championship lineup, and three outstanding freshmen join 2015-16 redshirt Haejin Choe as newcomers. The Roadrunners received eight of nine first-place votes and 80 points in the coaches’ predictions released Thursday, with William Carey second and Coastal Georgia third with 69 and 65 points.
Volleyball
* Covenant College was picked by USA South coaches to tie Maryville for first place in the conference’s West Division in volleyball this season. Each set of Lady Scots got four first-place votes and 46 points in the balloting, with Piedmont third with 32 and Huntingdon, LaGrange and league newcomers Agnes Scott, Salem and Wesleyan (Ga.) filling out the West. Averett was picked first with Meredith second in the East. Coached by Joanna Ehman, Covenant won the USA South regular-season and tournament titles last year and opens the 2016 season on Sept. 2 against Millsaps in Berry’s tournament.
Soccer
* The Covenant women’s soccer team was picked to finish fourth this season in the USA South’s West Division, and the Covenant men were predicted to finish sixth in their undivided 11-team league. The women have 16 total teams, and each division had two teams tied at the top of the coaches’ preseason lists: Meredith and Methodist in the East and Maryville and Piedmont in the West. Greensboro and Methodist tied for first in the men’s balloting with Maryville a close third and North Carolina Wesleyan and Averett also ahead of Covenant. Coach Nate Pifer’s Scots return four starters and 10 other players from a team that went 5-11-2 with a 4-4-2 USAS record last year. Mark Duble’s Lady Scots were 10-5-1 and 8-3-1 and reached the conference tournament, and the return 19 players and six starters. Both Covenant teams begin their seasons Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. against Berry, the men on Lookout Mountain and the women at Berry. Former Tennessee Wesleyan All-American and Hixson and Notre Dame high school coach Pepe Fernandez is beginning his 28th season coaching the Maryville men and his 26th season coaching the women as well.