Area Sports Notes: Kwame Appiah new Bryan College women's soccer coach

Eric Kwame Appiah
Eric Kwame Appiah

Eric Kwame Appiah is the new women's soccer head coach at Bryan College after five years as an assistant in the Lee University men's program. He succeeds Paul Babba, who left after two impressive seasons to be a Division I assistant at Elon. Kwame said in a Bryan release that he is "very ecstatic" and "very blessed" to get the chance to build on the program's recent success and work with athletes in fulfilling the mission of the Christian school in Dayton. "Honoring God with our very best in all that we do is paramount to my coaching philosophy," he said. Kwame is a native of Ghana, where he has played professionally, and starred as a center back at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio. Known for his enthusiasm and recruiting ability as well as his technical knowledge, he worked at Lee under two head coaches and was part of the staff that directed a National Christian College Athletic Association championship in 2014.

Tennis

' Singles wins by Ellie Czura, Catherine Owen, Haley Tucker and Clementina Davila gave nationally 12th-ranked host Sewanee a 5-4 victory over No. 13 Washington University of St. Louis in NCAA Division III women's tennis regional play Saturday. Davila and Owen had won 8-4 at No. 1 doubles in the 13th consecutive win for the Tigers (22-4), who face No. 1 Emory (14-4) in the third round today. The 19th-ranked Sewanee men lost 5-3 to North Carolina Wesleyan in Atlanta. Alejandro Becker won in doubles with Jack Metzger and at No. 6 singles for the Tigers (22-6), and Jordan Brewer won at No. 4 singles.

' In addition to Sewanee's Davila, whose selection already was reported, Washington and Lee senior Michelle Fleenor from Chattanooga and Girls Preparatory School will be part of the 32-player women's singles field in the Division III individual nationals May 24-26 at Claremont, Calif. Fleenor was the player of the year in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

Softball

' Top-seeded UNC Greensboro won 5-2 over sixth seed East Tennessee State in the Southern Conference softball championship game Saturday at Greensboro, N.C., but the defending champion Buccaneers had four all-tournament selections. UNCG (46-11) goes on to NCAA regional play. Coached by former UTC and Lee assistant Brad Irwin, ETSU wound up 19-27 but won six of its last eight games. One of the all-tournament Bucs was freshman Lauren Lee from Cleveland High School, who was 7-for-21 with two doubles and three runs scored. Kelsey Chernak from Ooltewah ended her ETSU career with 119 hits, two home runs, 25 doubles, 40 walks, 74 runs and 47 RBIs in 201 games (196 starts), and in her final collegiate at-bat she worked 11 pitches for a single in the seventh inning Saturday. Another senior is Cassi Pickett from Baylor, whose career was cut short by injury after she batted .305 with 83 hits, 10 homers, 12 doubles, 55 walks, 44 RBIs and 34 runs in 104 games (96 starts).

Baseball

' The ETSU baseball team hit six home runs Friday night in a 15-2 SoCon home win over Furman, and senior Caleb Longley from Walker Valley High School and Cleveland State hit two of them - including a grand slam. Longley was 4-for-5 with the two homers, two ground-rule doubles and five RBIs. He has 13 homers this season. Also for the Buccaneers, Cade Gilbert from Ringgold was 2-for-4 with a triple, an RBI and three runs scored, and center fielder Hunter Parker from East Hamilton and Chattanooga State was 1-for-2 with two runs and a sacrifice fly. The Bucs (26-20, 10-10) lost 6-5 to the Paladins on Saturday, and Longley had two hits but ended his streak of games with at least one RBI at 13. Parker also had two hits, and Gilbert singled in ETSU's three-run ninth inning.

Fishing

' Bryan's Nathan Bell and Cole Sands finished fourth Saturday with 40 pounds, 14 ounces of fish for three days in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Tour tournament on Cherokee Lake, and Bryan's Johnathan Peck and Griffin Heffington were seventh with 39-9. Another Lions duo, Thad Simerly and Ethan Shaw, were 19th with 35-11. A Grand Valley State pair won with 42-10.

Running

' Bryan Mann, 29, won the King of the Mountain 4-mile road race by more than two and a half minutes Saturday, and 17-year-old Myra Brock was the fastest female and ninth overall in 28 minutes, 20 seconds - one spot ahead of 11-year-old Frances Bohner in 28:37. Mann's time was 23:50, a pace of 5:58 per mile, and teenagers Davis Deloach, Jonathan Kapic and Jack Cottrell were second through fourth in 26:27, 26:28 and 26:30.

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