Sewanee’s tennis teams ended their seasons Saturday in NCAA Division III regionals. The 12th-ranked women lost 5-2 to No. 10 host Washington in the regional final in St. Louis. The Tigers’ Lindsey Liles and Clementina Davila won 8-4 at No. 1 doubles and Annie Veron ended her college career with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 6 singles. Liles and Davila will be playing in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships later this month. The 36th-ranked Sewanee men lost 5-1 in Atlanta to No. 12 Trinity (Texas), but the second-ranked doubles team of Baylor School alumni Eric Roddy and Jack Gray got a measure of redemption from their Small College national-finals loss last fall with an 8-4 win over Trinity’s top duo. Roddy and Gray in doubles and Sewanee teammate Avery Schober in singles will play in the national individual tournament.
General
– In its first year of eligibility for Gulf South Conference championships, Lee University finished third out of 11 schools in the 2015-16 GSC All-Sports Trophy standings. West Florida made league history by winning both the women’s and men’s competition and finishing first overall. The Argonauts totaled 89.500 points, followed by West Alabama at 79.500, Lee at 78.375 and North Alabama at 75.875. Points are awarded for all GSC sports a school sponsors – 75 percent for regular-season finishes and 25 percent for tournament status. Therefore a school is not penalized for sports it doesn’t have, such as football in Lee’s case. The Cleveland school was second to UWF in women’s points, 40.750 to 36.125, and was fifth in the men’s standings. In those lists, basketball counts for all, and each school also is credited for its other four best finishes.
Sailing
– Chattanoogan Chris Cyrul of the host Privateer Yacht Club leads the Scowabunga regatta on Chickamauga Lake after three races in gusting wind Saturday. Cyrul had two first-place finishes and a fifth. Richard Blake of Columbus, Ohio, is second with David Helnick of Eustis, Fla., third in the event for MC Scow sailboats. Former Chattanoogan Jonathan Few of Charlotte, N.C., is fourth overall and was leading the first race when he capsized in a strong gust near the finish line. Chris Brooks of St. Louis is fifth. The 21-boat regatta will resume at 9:30 this morning with two races and maybe a third.
Softball
– After edging Tennessee 3-1 in eight innings in a Friday semifinal, LSU lost 7-1 to Auburn in the Southeastern Conference softball tournament final Saturday. East Hamilton graduate Shaliyah Geathers was 1-for-3 and had the hit-by-pitch RBI for Tennessee (41-14).
– Top-seeded Samford edged No. 2 seed Furman 4-3 in eight innings for the Southern Conference softball tournament championship Saturday at Greensboro, N.C. That gave the Bulldogs (40-18) a program record for wins in a season and put them in an NCAA regional. Samford pitcher Mollie Hanson, who threw a no-hitter Thursday and a one-hitter Friday, allowed Furman (33-28) only one earned run and was the tournament’s most outstanding player.
– The Brenau University softball team that includes Chattanooga-area players begins play Monday in Lawrenceville, Ga., in the four-team Georgia Gwinnett Bracket of the NAIA playoffs. Brenau’s third-seeded Golden Tigers (29-22) face the second-seeded host team, with whom they split two one-run games in the regular season.
Volleyball
– Georgia Northwestern volleyball coach Carrie Powell added two recruits this past week from Hearts Academy of Excellence, a Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association school in Powder Springs: Kaitlyn Castle and Demi Hatfield. They are best friends and play club ball for the West Georgia Volleyball Academy with another GNTC recruit, Sierra Crew. “That’s going to be beneficial. I think it will be great for them to come in already having that chemistry,” Powell said in a release. “Kaitlyn is a solid all-around player. She’s got a great arm on her, and she’ll be a hitter. She’s also got an impressive serve, and Demi will be a great back-row player for us. We found them both through Sierra. Both of them started coming to our open gyms, and they were very eager to play.”
Running
– Charlie McSpadden won the Greenway Classic 10-kilometer race Saturday in Cleveland by more than two minutes, and Melissa Steve was the first female by nearly five minutes and sixth overall. McSpadden’s time was 40 minutes, 50 seconds; Steve’s was 47:12. Mark Lorello and Rachel Mason were first and second as the 5k overall winners in 20:22 and 21:01.