Area Sports Notes: No. 1 seed Furman tops UTC women in SoCon tennis

Evelyn Thompson

Top-seeded Furman defeated the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women 4-0 in the Southern Conference tennis semifinals Saturday at the Champions Club, leaving the Mocs at 10-8 for the season. Furman (19-8) won 6-3 and 6-1 at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles and clinched the team victory with straight-sets singles wins by Katty Weymouth, Danni Vines and Georgie Walker over Caroline Hall, Delaney Edwards and Emma Van Hee. In the unfinished matches, however, UTC’s Samantha Caswell was up 6-4, 4-4 at No. 1 singles and Tamri Chalaganidze and Bogdana Zaporozhets were leading second sets after 6-4 and 6-3 first-set defeats. Furman will meet East Tennessee State in both the women’s and men’s finals. ETSU’s second-seeded women and No. 1 seeded men beat Samford 4-0 on Saturday, and Furman’s third-seeded men topped No. 2 seed Mercer 4-1.

‘ The nationally 11th-ranked Sewanee women’s tennis team downed Oglethorpe 5-0 Saturday and is scheduled to face Millsaps in the Southern Athletic Association tournament finals in Murfreesboro. Posting the 550th career win for coach John Shackelford, the 20th-ranked Sewanee men beat Rhodes 5-1 and also are set to face Millsaps for the championship. Jack Gray with Hayden Loeb and Jack Metzger with Alejandro Becker won in doubles for the male Tigers (21-5), and Ryan Olps, Jordan Brewer and Becker ended the team match with singles wins. The doubles victors for the Sewanee women (20-4) were Clementina Davila with Catherine Owens, Christina Merchant with Ellie Czura and Haley Tucker with Sara Thompson, and Owen won 6-0, 6-1 and Darby Duval won 6-0, 6-0 to end the team contest.

Fishing

‘ Hensley Powell of Whitwell won the three-day Costa FLW Series Central Division bass tournament on Table Rock Lake in Missouri with 40 pounds, 12 ounces. He earned $49,700 for his victory Saturday in the 197-boat event. Andy Morgan of Dayton was 13th with 25-7 for two days.

‘ Bryan College anglers Conner Fogg and Chandler Fogg finished 23rd Saturday in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Southern Tour tournament on Pickwick Lake. The Foggs were 10th at 32 pounds, 12 ounces after two rounds and wound up at 40-14. An Adrian College duo won with 58-11. Bryan’s Nathan Bell and Cole Sands were 33rd at 27-4 for two rounds, and Dalton Price and Jake Lee finished 45th at 25-6.