The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball team is the school's second fall sports program to announce it will have a competition this semester. Although the Southern Conference has postponed league play for fall sports until the spring semester, SoCon teams are permitted to take on nonconference foes in the meantime. Last week, UTC announced it would follow through on a plan to play at Football Bowl Subdivision member Western Kentucky of Conference USA, with the new date for that game Oct. 24. The volleyball Mocs will host Sun Belt member Georgia State at 2 p.m. on Sept. 12 at Maclellan Gymnasium, and although fans will not be permitted due to COVID-19 guidelines, the match will be streamed live, with details to be announced soon at GoMocs.com. In UTC's release regarding the match, coach Travis Filar noted it will offer seniors Bailey Bennett, Mikaela Gauthreaux, Maddie Halsey and Megan Kaufman a final chance to suit up for the Mocs, with that group not competing in the spring due to post-graduation plans. In other fall schedule news, Dalton State College has released its updated soccer plans at DSRoadrunners.com, and the Roadrunners' Southern States Athletic Conference has announced its rescheduled spring dates for fall sports championships.
Soccer
Jessica Shepherd has joined UTC coach Gavin McKinney's staff as a graduate assistant. Shepherd, who is from Manchester, England, graduated this year from Southern Miss, where she played two seasons as a midfielder/defender and received multiple academic honors. She began her soccer career in the United States at Mississippi Gulf Community College, where she later returned as a student coach after her playing days at Southern Miss ended. She also has played for women's soccer teams in the Scenic City, first for the Chattanooga Football Club and then for the Chattanooga Red Wolves, later helping them as a summer youth camp coach. The Mocs have been practicing this fall for a spring season, the details of which have not been determined.
Outdoors
Bryan College's Mason Cizek and Jake Lee teamed up to finish eighth with fellow Lions anglers Conner Dimauro and Cole Sands 16th in a Bassmaster College Series tournament this past Thursday through Saturday on Lake Hartwell out of Anderson, South Carolina. Five of the eight Bryan duos entered finished in the top half of the field of 115 two-angler teams.
Cross country
Four Lee University runners were mentioned in the Stride Report's top 25 rankings for NCAA Division II cross country, with the Lady Flames' Celine Ritter eighth and the Flames' Christian Noble at No. 2 with teammates Titus Lagat and Casey Guthery in the "just missed" and "honorable mention" categories, respectively. Lee coach Caleb Morgan noted the rankings take into account not only the previous cross country season but track accomplishments and offseason progress. Noble and Ritter are considered national title contenders, and their teams are set to begin the 2020 schedule Sept. 19 at the UAH Charger Open in Huntsville, Alabama.
Softball
Zoe Miller, a two-time captain of the Lee softball team whose Lady Flames career wrapped up this past spring, is one of four former Gulf South Conference student-athletes to receive a degree completion grant in 2020. The GSC awarded a total of $12,000 in financial aid as it presented the scholarships for the third straight year, with Miller joined by Sommer Rhea (Auburn University at Montgomery volleyball), Tylor Ring (Montevallo soccer) and Emily Wilson (Shorter volleyball). Miller was a four-time member of the GSC honor roll and was a National Fastpitch Coaches Association scholar-athlete honoree in 2018.
Compiled by Marty Kirkland. Contact him at mkirkland@timesfreepress.com.