Believe it or not, there are sports other than football, and the University of Georgia fields teams of student-athletes in some of them, and those Red and Black undergraduates are even good at some of them. Accordingly, here is your weekend recap from the non-revenue sports:
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: Georgia lost to Florida in an athletic competition. In this particular case, the No. 13 Gators claimed a 3-0 victory over the Red and Black women’s volleyball team in Athens on Sunday. Despite the straight-set setback suffered at the hands of a Sunshine State Saurian squad that now stands at 4-1 in SEC play, the Bulldogs were competitive, falling, 26-24, in an extra-points first set and coming up just short in the third set, 25-23. The loss leaves Georgia at 2-4 in the conference and 6-10 overall, but it also left head coach Lizzy Stemke feeling positive that her team is "taking baby steps in the right direction" and is "right there." Next up for Georgia is a home match against Auburn on Wednesday.
On Friday night, Alexa Newfield’s goal in the 27th minute lifted the Red and Black to a 1-0 conference win over Arkansas in Fayetteville, improving the Bulldogs’ road record to 5-0 for the season. Unfortunately, that ledger sustained its first blemish on Sunday, when Georgia spotted LSU a pair of early goals to set the pace for a 2-1 defeat in Baton Rouge. The Tigers remain unbeaten in SEC action, while the Athenians now stand at 2-2 in the league.
The lone bright spot from the Georgia ladies’ first day of pre-qualifying for the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in Los Angeles was contributed by freshman Lauren Herring, whose 6-3, 6-2 first-round victory made her the day’s only Bulldog winner. Herring’s second-round elimination, 6-1, 6-1, dealt her the first loss of her collegiate career, leaving her singles record at 7-1. The qualifying draw, which gets underway at noon today, features Herring and sophomore Kate Fuller in the 32-team doubles field, followed by senior Nadja Gilchrist and sophomore Maho Kowase among the 64 singles participants.
The male Red and Black netters spent the weekend in Atlanta, where four Georgia tennis players made it as far as the quarterfinals of the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational to set up a Sunday featuring Garrett Brasseaux’s and Eric Diaz’s 8-6 doubles win in the quarterfinals and 8-1 win in the semifinals. The highlight of the day, though, was sixth-seeded sophomore Campbell Johnson’s run through the singles draw, where he upset Alabama’s No. 1-seeded Daniil Proskura, 7-5, 7-5, and Georgia State’s No. 3-seeded Victor Valente, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(3), before taking the title on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over Armstrong Atlantic’s Matus Mydia.
Consider yourself up to date. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled college football season, which is already in progress.
Go ‘Dawgs!