Weekend Preview: Winning titles and honors edition

It's a relatively quiet weekend around Athens as far as UGA sports is concerned.  Of course, that's only as UGA sports are concerned, as the town is in it's yearly buzz for the downtown tradition of cyclists slamming into hay bales known as the Twilight Criterium (and thanks to Atlanta bluegrass band Sailing to Denver for the amazing music I heard last night).  But just because our teams have hit the road doesn't mean there isn't action to follow.  So let's get to what we're following.

Baseball spends the weekend in Nashville hoping to get back to their winning ways against Vanderbilt.  Tonight's first pitch is at 7:30, with Ryan Lawlor taking the mound for the Diamond Dawgs.  Tommorrow sees Robert Tyler starting the 4:05 affair, televised by CSS.  And Sunday's 2:00 start has a starting pitcher still to be determined.

Men's golf will spend the weekend enjoying St. Simons and the Sea Island Golf Club for this year's SEC Championships.  The second seeded and top 5 ranked Dawgs will have the country's top ranked individual in senior Joey Garber, as well as fellow seniors Michael Cromie and Keith Mitchell, sophomore Lee McCoy, and freshman Greyson Sigg on the course.

Track will be in Des Moines, Iowa for the Drake Relays.  This is the penultimate event of their regular season, with only the May 10th Georgia Invitational in Athens between now and the SEC Championships in Lexington, Ky that begin May 15th.  Last night saw distance runner Marrion Kalafut and the 4 x 1600m relay team (each of the 4 members run 400 meters) compete.

The softball team is in Tuscaloosa for a 3 game set that began last night on ESPN.  Georgia dropped a 4-2 game to the 7th ranked Lady Tide, with tonight's match up set for 7:30 and tomorrow's game starting at noon.

The tennis Dawgs each put 3 members on the All-SEC teams, including SEC Player of the Year Lauren Herring.  The junior from Greenville, NC becomes the 6th winner from Georgia women's tennis, and was joined on the All-SEC team by senior Maho Kowase and sophomore Silvia Garcia.  On the men's side, senior Garrett Brasseuax, junior Nathan Pasha, and sophomore Austin Smith made it back to back season's with a trio of All-SEC members out of Manny Diaz's charges.

Going from one Athens to another will be Stefani Workman, as women's soccer coach Steve Holeman announced that the now former head coach at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia is joining his staff. Also joining the Dawg sports community is former Canadian national team gymnast Vivi Babalis, who specializes on the beam and floor (aka where the Gym Dogs were weakest last year).

The equestrian team took home plenty of honors from their national championship winning trip to Waco, Texas.  And the awards didn't stop when they returned home, as Meghan Boenig's girls won their second straight Bulldog Cup.  It is awarded annually to the team that "excels academically, supports their peers in athletic competition, and consistently serves the community since the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee began the award in 2010.

And before we go, I wanted to bring your attention to two videos Georgiadogs.com put up in the past week.  Senior Hernus Pieters won the 2014 Inspiration Award, and you can see why clicking the link.  Also, as you may recall last fall former CB Paul Oliver died from a self-inflicted gun shot.  It was a very tragic occurence that just may lead to a positive result.  In early March, many of his former teammates got together to remember Oliver and reconnect with each other in what is hoped to be the first of an annual event called the Paul Oliver Networking Weekend.

And as always, GO DAWGS!