Around the Region: Evelyn Thompson hired to coach Lady Cougars

Evelyn Thompson

Former Auburn standout and experienced NCAA Division I assistant coach Evelyn Thompson is the new women's basketball head coach at Cleveland State Community College. She succeeds Dan Lumpkin, who joined the staff at Liberty. The Lady Cougars' season begins Nov. 1 against Snead State. Thompson most recently worked at Tennessee Tech and then Tennessee State after two years as a consultant and evaluator for Blue Star Basketball, preceded by a stint as head coach of the Michigan Crossover AAU Nike Elite team. She coached in the 1990s at Arizona State and Western Kentucky, helping each reach the NCAA tournament, and from 1999 to 2002 at Georgia high schools. She returned to the college ranks at Buffalo and then Michigan State and Stony Brook, where she was the interim head coach for the last three months of the 2010-11 season. As a player she helped lead Northeast Mississippi CC to a national championship and was on two SEC champion and NCAA runner-up squads at Auburn, making SEC and regional all-tournament teams as a senior. Always active in her community, she said in a Cleveland State release Friday that her job is more than teaching basketball. "I want to be a head coach that sends out people who are ready for their profession, no matter what it is," she said. As for the basketball part, she said, "The product we're trying to build is to make Cleveland State a program that Division I schools will recruit from."

Soccer

-Three goals from freshman Chloe Arnold gave the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga a 3-2 Southern Conference women's soccer win Friday at The Citadel. Her third score came 7:08 into the second overtime period, lifting the Mocs to 4-8-3 overall and 2-3-1 in the league. Arnold netted a Catherine Meyer assist at 6:53 and made it 2-0 at 10:10, but Cierra Skyers scored for the Bulldogs (5-9, 0-6) at 30:37 and 83:33. Melia Correa made six saves for UTC, which had a 22-14 margin in shots.

-Two Riley Engels goals gave the Lee University women a 2-0 Gulf South win at Auburn-Montgomery, and the Lee men (5-4-3, 4-3-1) romped 4-0 with goals by Tanner Carter, Alfie Coldron, Jared McWhorter and Samaan Williams and shots margins of 20-5, 11-2 on goal. The Lady Flames (8-4, 7-2) outshot AUM 25-4, 10-1 on goal.

-While the Covenant men's team was losing 3-1 at home to Maryville in USA South soccer, the Covenant women (8-5, 3-1) won 3-0 at Huntingdon on second-half goals by Addy Cronan, Grace Bartelt and Grace Buys. Elsa Woody and Kyra Duble had assists. Anthony Buzzeo scored for Covenant's Scots (5-9-1, 2-4-1) after Jameson Elmore gave Maryville (12-1, 7-0) a 2-0 lead.

-Sewanee's women tied 1-1 and the men won 1-0 in their Southern Athletic Association home doubleheader against Hendrix. Mary Frank scored for the female Tigers (5-6-2, 3-1-1). Kyle Johnston scored for the Sewanee men (7-6, 3-2), assisted by Alpo Sipil; they led 26-7 in shots.

Volleyball

-Lee beat Lynn 3-0 in the GSC/SSC Crossover volleyball tournament Friday night at Hoover, Ala. The set scores were 25-23, 25-14, 25-23. Silvia Sartori had nine kills and Quinne Daoust and Alex Reuter had eight apiece for Lee (13-4, 5-3), while Sadie Johnson had 21 assists, Kristi Farley 11 assists, MaKayla Beebe 12 digs and Brooke Wilsman and Sartori 10 digs each.

-Freshman Te'a Owens from Ridgeland High School had seven kills as Point University rose to 16-7, 11-4 in the AAC, with a 3-0 win (25-22, 25-19, 25-19) Friday at St. Andrews.

Running

-UTC junior Emily Poole from Heritage High was 24th individually in the Crimson Classic cross country meet Friday at Tuscaloosa, Ala., with a personal-beat 6-kilometer time of 21:16.7. Her Mocs were 21st out of 30 teams. The UTC men were 18th among 26 in the 8k, led by John Payne finishing 78th out of 254 runners.