Lindsey Liles is the fourth Sewanee women’s tennis player to be honored as Intercollegiate Tennis Association national senior player of the year for NCAA Division III, after going 14-5 in singles and 23-3 in doubles this season and graduating with a 4.06 grade point average on a 4.0 scale. And Sewanee’s Eric Roddy from Chattanooga and Baylor School got the the ITA award as the Atlantic South Region’s most improved male player. A 2016 All-American due to his ITA national doubles runner-up finish with Jack Gray last fall, Roddy is 25-4 in doubles and 19-4 in singles. He graduated with a 4.03 GPA and was the Southern Athletic Association man of the year. Liles, a multiple All-American, is ranked No. 1 in the region with Clementina Davila and No. 5 in singles as they play this week in the NCAA nationals, and the Little Rock, Ark., resident has career records of 84-19 in doubles and 59-18 in singles. The Tigers’ previous national senior players of the year were Cameron Tyer in 1993, Mary Missbach in 2000 and Gabriela Carvalho in 2008.
– After losing to undefeated champion Georgia Gwinnett in the national semifinals, the Dalton State men’s team moved up from fifth to fourth in the final NAIA coaches’ poll of the season. Gwinnett (28-0) got nine first-place votes and 219 points in the final balloting, and national runner-up Xavier of Louisiana (17-8) was second with 212, followed by Lindsey Wilson (17-4) with 202 and the Roadrunners (19-6) with 201.
Golf
– Web.com Tour golfer Jason Millard from Murfreesboro followed his first-round 62 with a 69 Wednesday and at 13 under par has a five-stroke lead over the next two guys who have finished 36 holes in the SunTrust Tennessee State Open at Gallatin. But amateur Eric Ansett of Nashville is only three behind Millard in relation to par with three holes left in his second round. UTC player Wes Gosselin has two holes to go and is at 6 under. Former Moc and U.S. Amateur champion Steven Fox is tied for 11th at 5-under 139 with Lee University’s Taylor Davis tied for 14th at 140 and Chattanooga resident Jay Vandeventer in the group sharing 17th at 3-under 141.
– Chase Jones fell out of a tie for first individually and his Dalton State men’s golf team slipped to 12th place Wednesday in the 30-team NAIA tournament at TPC Deere Run at Moline, Ill. Jones shot a 78 and now is tied for 14th at 147, while Dalton Johnson shot 72 and is at 151 with Austin Hughes at 153, Sean Elliott at 158 and Levi Nix at 160. DSC is at 607, 22 shots behind team leader William Woods.
Soccer
– UTC will have 10 home games in the 2016 women’s soccer season, and one of the visitors will be Alabama from the Southeastern Conference. The Mocs’ 18-game regular season will begin with a visit from Kennesaw State on Friday, Aug. 19, at Finley Stadium, and another home match against Alabama A&M two days later on “Meet the Mocs” Sunday. Alabama will come to Finley the next Sunday as the Mocs’ first SEC guest since Tennessee in 2008. UT-Martin and Radford will visit on Sept. 9 and 11, and UTC will face Ohio Valley Conference members Murray State, Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay on the road before opening Southern Conference play Sept. 23 at Furman and Sept. 25 at Wofford. The Mocs then will play five SoCon home games in a row, beginning with The Citadel on Sept. 30. “We like the schedule,” coach Gavin McKinney said in a school release. “It’s competitive and well balanced, and we have some tough teams out of conference.”
Baseball
– Senior pitcher Garrett Kriston and junior outfielder Luke Harvey of Covenant College made the American Baseball Coaches Association Division III All-South Region second team for 2016. Kriston was 9-3 with a 3.86 earned run average, and he holds school career records with 272 2/3 innings pitched, 255 strikeouts and 23 wins. Harvey led the USA South with a .413 batting average and had 14 doubles, 28 RBIs, 39 runs and a school-record 26 stolen bases.