Even without winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season or tournament championship, the second-place Bryan College men’s soccer team is hosting an NAIA national first-round match Saturday at 2 p.m. Spring Arbor (14-3-4) from Michigan will be the opponent. The winners of the 15 campus-site openers will join host team Keiser for the Nov. 28-Dec. 3 wrap-up in Delray Beach, Fla. Bryan (16-2-3) wound up ranked 11th and seeded 10th with AAC champion Union (Ky.) seeded seventh at 18-2-1. The Tennessee Wesleyan women, who won their AAC tournament as the fourth seed, play Saturday at 11 a.m. at Northwestern Ohio.
Golf
* In announcing the official signings of Baylor School’s A.J. Lintunens from Finland and Californian Connor Nolan to national letters of intent, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s golf coach Mark Guhne said “they can both come in and immediately compete for the starting lineup.” Even with Wes Gosselin and Brooks Thomas now in their final year of eligibility, “I like our depth,” Guhne said in Tuesday’s release. “We’ve got a lot of guys with good scoring averages shooting consistent rounds. A.J. and Connor give us two more really strong options.” Guhne likened Lintunen’s “path” to another Baylor golfer who joined the Mocs, All-American and now professional Stephan Jaeger from Germany. “He’s an international who is a great student, has a work ethic that’s off the charts and was maybe a little under-the-radar in recruiting. He’s very technically proficient. We’ve seen him shoot a lot of really low numbers.” Nolan, the son of a longtime teaching pro, graduated from high school last spring but is taking a “gap year” to work on his game. He has three PGA Southern California Junior Tour victories with 14 top-fives and 23 top-10s in three years. “We found him at the U.S. Junior this summer,” Guhne said. “He’s played at a really high level. He’s talented with a big upside.”
Volleyball
* Fourth-seeded Christian Brothers ended fifth seed Lee University’s volleyball season with a 3-0 Gulf South Conference tournament win Tuesday night in Memphis. The set scores were 25-11, 25-20, 25-21. Blaire Beamer had nine kills and Brooke Wilsman added seven for Lee (15-15), while Sadie Johnson and Kristi Farley had 15 and 11 assists and MaKayla Beebe had 16 digs. Emma Lenoir from East Hamilton had seven kills for CBU (18-13).