Beyond the Hedges is ready to talk about something, anything, other than college football right now

Well, if you're Country Club U, they don't really play football at the country club do they?  Those divots might become trouble for the foursome following us, and we shan't have that.  So after a month in misery over what was going on inside the hedges, let's take a peak at what we've missed outside the hedges in University of Georgia athletics.  And to start things off, we'd like to congratulate the women's swimming and diving and the men's cross country teams for having the highest team GPAs last academic year.

BASKETBALL

Men's and women's hoops have begun their preseason practices for games that will get underway in a few weeks.  For the third consecutive season, Mike Budenholzer and the Atlanta Hawks went back to school for their preseason to begin their training camp.  TV times have been set for both the men and the women for their games this season.  And we'll starting getting the usual training camp impressions like of much needed big man, freshman Derek Ogbeide.  Ogbeidge helping to fill the shoes of the departed Marcus Thornton and Nemi Djurisic will go a long way towards Georgia making a repeat trip to the NCAA Tournament this spring. Meanwhile, new head coach Joni Taylor and her team will be hosting a "Biscuits and Baskets" meet and greet at Butts-Mehre on October 24th.

SWIMMING AND DIVING

The Dawgs swept North Carolina at home in their season opener this past weekend, which made for the 95th consecutive home pool victory for the Lady Dawgs.  Senior Hali Flickinger and freshman James Guest earned SEC Female Swimmer of the Week and Male Freshman of the Week honors for their performances. Jack Bauerle's teams will return to the water on Friday, October 30th in Gainesville, FL for a meet with the Gators.

GYMNASTICS

Senior Brittany Rogers will represent her home nation of Canada in the 46th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships October 23rd through November 1st in Scotland. A little closer to home, Danna Durante's ladies will begin their season on January 9th with Michigan, and season tickets are on sale.

CROSS COUNTRY

The men and women were in Boston late September for the Boston College Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, taking home 5th and 13th respectively. They'll return to action this weekend on the 17th in Louisville for the Pre-Nationals.

EQUESTRIAN

Senior Lauren Garmon started off defending her SEC Rider of the Year honor by winning Rider of the Month for September. The top ranked Dawgs defeated Fresno State and Delaware State to start the month, and took care of Texas A&M back in September to start their season.  We look to go 4-0 this Friday hosting Oklahoma St in Bishop at 2.

SOCCER

The Lady Dawgs have struggled since we last did this, going 2-4 in SEC play.  Both wins have come in Athens though, and Alabama will come to town Friday at 7 for Senior Night. If you can't make it to Milledge Avenue, the game will be available on SEC Network +.

VOLLEYBALL

The ball has not bounced well for these Lady Dawgs either, as they enter today's contest with South Carolina with a record of 5-11, and 0-4 in SEC play.  Sunday's home match with Missouri at 1:30 will give them another chance to notch a win before heading to Auburn and Alabama next week.

TENNIS

Manuel Diaz sent one set of his boys to Lafayette, Louisiana, and another quartet to Malibu, back in September to get in some fall work (sounds like some folks should have been nicer to their coach, huh?).  The girls started their season in Puerto Rico with five winning titles.  The men then headed to Tulsa, while the ladies went to Pacific Palisades for the All-Americans were senior Austin Smith and sophomore Ellen Perez made the deepest run of any Dawg by reaching the semifinals.  The ladies will spend this weekend taking on players from Clemson, Michigan, and Princeton at the Winward Lake Club in Alpharetta, and the men travel to the swamps of Gainesville, Florida for the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Championships.

GOLF

GlimmerTwin let you know how the season ended for the boys on the PGA Tour.  Since then, Chris Kirk has helped bring home a President's Cup.  The Lady Dawgs have been cruising along nicely, and won earlier this month outside of Chicago.  They end their fall season this weekend in California with the Stanford Intercollegiate Sunday through Tuesday.  The men took part in the Nike Invitational to begin October, and will end their fall campaign with the East Lake Cup in Atlanta followed by a three day tournament in Hawaii in early November.

SOFTBALL

Lu Harris-Champer ladies boast two All-American Scholar-Athletes and are in the middle of their fall schedule.  They beat USC Upstate this past weekend after the game with North Carolina was rained out.  An earlier game this month with Samford was also rained out, but the fall opener saw enough runs to count twice, right?  They have three games left; starting Sunday at noon in a double-header with Georgia Southern, followed next Saturday  the 24th at noon against Florida St, then Sunday the 25th at 1 vs. Jacksonville State.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGS!