MEN'S TENNIS
After last Friday's defeat of the Volunteers, the men's tennis team hopped up two spots in the national rankings to No. 7. Monday afternoon, the Dawgs cruised to a 7-0 win over William and Mary at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Coach Diaz once again shuffled the lineup. Senior KU Singh is still out per the coaches' decision, and freshman Nick Wood's injury is keeping him sidelined indefinitely. Sophomore Nathan Pasha was given a break for the day as Diaz put some experience into our depth. Even with some of our best players out, Georgia took doubles point by decisive wins at all three courts by identical 8-3 scores and cruised through singles in straight sets for the shutout of the Tribe. Freshman Ben Wagland made his college career debut in the number one spot and clinched Georgia's victory for the third consecutive time with his 6-0, 6-4 win. This was win number 568 for Coach Diaz as a head coach, moving him into a tie for second place among SEC coaches for all-time wins. He shares the spot with long-time Kentucky head man Dennis Emery, but they both have a long way to go to catch up to legendary UGA Coach Dan Magill's 706 career wins from 1955-1988.
Prior to the match, Georgia recognized William and Mary's Coach Peter Daub for his fine work as an assistant under Diaz in 1992-93, including SEC regular-seasons and tournament championships and an appearance in the NCAA finals. We resume SEC play with a Magnolia State tour: No. 9 Ole Miss in Oxford tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. and No. 11 Mississippi State in Starkville Sunday at 2:00 p.m. I told y'all: the SEC is brutal this year. Check the Rebels' and Other Bulldogs' sites for live scoring close to match times.
BASEBALL
Tuesday's baseball game against Western Carolina at Foley Field had already become ugly quickly when play was interrupted early in the first for a rain delay. When the Dawgs returned to the diamond, the Catamounts already had two men on base by a walk and a single with no outs and proceeded to notch five more hits and score five runs. Georgia got one man across the plate in each of the first and fourth innings, but Western Carolina tacked on two more in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead. The Diamond Dogs tried to mount a comeback, plating three more runs in the sixth, cutting the visitors' lead to two, but proceeded to give up another five-run inning to the Catamounts in the seventh. Two more runs for Georgia in the ninth were woefully insufficient, and the hosts fell 12-7. As Friend of the Blog Tyler Dawgden noted over at the Georgia Sports Blog, it's time to panic. Liberty visits Athens Friday through Monday.
WOMEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING
The NCAA announced who will be participating in the women's swimming and diving championships scheduled for 21-23 March in Indianapolis, and the 2013 SEC Champion Lady Bulldogs' 17 qualifiers is the most from any school. Check out this link for a complete list of participants by school. Georgia boasts a dozen top-ten individual entry times, including senior (and Olympic gold medalist) Allison Schmitt's No. 1 seed in the 200 freestyle, and the nation's fastest times in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyle relays. This team definitely is in contention for a national championship.
TRACK AND FIELD
The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships are this weekend in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and UGA has 15 qualifying athletes. We're not in contention for a team championship, but with some strong performances, we can make a good showing in individual events. We'll keep an eye on things and report back Sunday evening.
UPCOMING
In addition to the coming events noted above, here's what the next few days have in store for the Dawgs:
The women's basketball SEC Tournament is under way in Duluth. Georgia's opponent for tomorrow night's 9:00 game (SportSouth) will be decided tonight between LSU and Auburn (also SPSO, 8:30). Here's your updated bracket.
The No. 10 men's golf team will participate in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, Las Vegas, 8-10 March.
The twelfth-ranked women's golf team will be at Hilton Head, 8-10 March, for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. And please allow me to correct my previous oversight in failing to congratulate sophomore Rocio Sanchez Lobato on being named SEC Golfer of the Week following her estelar performance at the FSU Match-Up, in which she held the individual lead from start to finish and helped UGA win the tournament title.
No. 9 women's tennis hosts Ole Miss tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 and Mississippi State Sunday afternoon at 1:00. Live scoring will be available if you can't make it to the matches.
The ladies of the softball diamond will be in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for another muti-team tournament.
The equestrian team is up against Texas A&M tomorrow in College Station.
Perennial gymastics powerhouse Utah will be visiting Stegeman Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. Live scoring will be available here. Vineyarddawg will have your post-meet wrap after the show, and look for his general guide to collegiate gymastics scoring in the next couple of days to brush up on how one of our traditionally strongest programs works.
OF NOTE
The 8-0 men's club lacrosse team cracked the nation's top 20 in the most recent rankings. The Dawgs have a couple of weeks off before heading to Oxford 22 March and facing Vandy on 24 March. Check out their fun late-night lacrosse-cam practice session:
We'll see you here at Dawg Sports tonight for the men's basketball game against Kentucky. Until next time ...
GO DAWGS!