Georgia Cross Country, Volleyball, Golf, and Soccer have a good weekend

While the Georgia Football team took a week off, Georgia Cross Country, Volleyball, Golf, and Soccer teams had a successful week of competition.

Volleyball

The Georgia volleyball team beat the Chattanooga Mocs in the home opener as part of the Bulldog Invitational. A raucous crowd of 1,588 watched the Dawgs post the 3-0 win (25-19, 25-21, 25-19) on Friday at the Ramsey Center in Athens, Ga. With the win, the Bulldogs even their overall record to 2-2. Chattanooga dropped to 1-4 on the season. The volleyball team then team swept through the final day of the Invitational to take home the tournament title with a pair of 3-0 wins over Belmont and the College of Charleston. Georgia took a 25-20, 25-13, 25-19 win over Belmont in the first game of the day before handing the College of Charleston a 25-23, 25-21, 25-14 loss in the tournament finale.

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“I’m really proud of this group,” said head coach Lizzy Stemke to Georgiadogs.com. “We got stronger as the tournament went on. The preseason tournaments tend to be pretty draining, so for us to get stronger with every match and every point is a great testament to how hard this team is working. They wanted this season to be about grit and we did that to the final point.”

Cross Country

In cross country action, the Lady Bulldogs swept Georgia Tech and Mercer while the Georgia men split their race at the Georgia Cross Country Invitational in Bishop, Ga., on Saturday morning.

The Georgia women edged Georgia Tech 25-30 and topped Mercer 15-48 in the 5000-meter race course that wraps around the UGA Equestrian Complex. The Bulldog men also beat Mercer 15-48 on their 8000-meter course, but fell to the Yellow Jackets 34-25 under clear skies and patchy fog.

True freshman Tayler Tuttle highlighted the meet by surging in front of Georgia Tech senior Katie Townsend for top individual honors thanks to a time of 18:14.80.

On the men’s side, senior Steven Spevacek bettered his 2013 finish by nine spots to earn runner-up honors after crossing the finish line in 26:07.87. Georgia Tech junior Jeremy Greenwald won the men’s race after completing his laps in 25:53.44.

Bulldog distance coach Patrick Cunniff spoke to Georgiadogs.com.

"“It was nice to get the season started and see our kids running out on the course. There were many positives on both sides with Spevacek, (Morgan) Malanoski and (Bryan) Kamau having these results, which is a great sign for our fitness. The girls took a hit this week since we lost six because of minor injuries and things like that, but we proved today that we are deep, and will get deeper as the season progresses. Now we just have to move forward. Obviously winning her first meet was a great way for Tayler Tuttle to start her collegiate career. I am encouraged about where this season might go.”"

Several Georgia runners were sidelined for the race. Senior Carly Hamilton, who is a two-time First Team All-American on the track and an All-Region performer in cross country last year, rested for the Lady Bulldogs while senior Zack Sims, junior Sid Vaughn and senior Brendan Hoban, a trio that led Georgia most of last season, sat out this race and could possibly redshirt the 2014 season.

Golf

The Georgia women’s golf team opened its 2014-15 season in Louisville, Ky, with a runner-up showing at the Cardinal Fall Kickoff at Chariot Run Club on Sunday. The Bulldogs carded rounds of 314 and 304 to finish the one-day, 36-hole event at 618.

Head coach Josh Brewer spoke to Georgiadogs.com. “We played much better in the second round. It’s been about a month since anyone has competed so we wanted to get some tournament play in before we head to our first full-field event next weekend. Now, we have a few things to work on and straighten out before next Sunday.”

Soccer

Georgia Soccer’s sophomore midfielder Gabby Seiler set the Georgia record for most consecutive games with a goal, while three other Bulldogs scored for the first time in their careers in Georgia’s 4-0 shutout of Houston Friday night at the UGA Soccer Stadium.

Seiler’s goal in the 26th minute of Friday night’s contest marked the fifth straight game in which the Peachtree City native has tallied one in 2014. No Georgia player had ever scored in five games in a row before in the program’s 20-year history.

“I think it was a great performance beginning to end,” Steve Holeman told Georgiadogs.com. “It was a total team effort tonight. We were able to rotate a lot of players in, and I thought we were great in the midfield, we did a great job of finishing our chances, and defensively we were solid.”

“Gabby is a special player,” Holeman said of Seiler’s performance. “I’m not too surprised she scored tonight. She had a lot of good chances. She really has a nose for the goal, and that’s one thing she really wanted to work on in the off-season was being more productive from a scoring aspect. She’s certainly improving on that so far.”

On Sunday at the UGA Soccer Stadium, Sophomore Rachel Garcia scored in the 11^th minute and it was all Georgia needed in a 1-0 victory over 17^th-ranked.

UCF drops to 3-2-0 with today’s loss. For Georgia, it was the team’s highest-ranked win since defeating No. 17 South Carolina by a 2-0 score in Athens on Sept. 20, 2013, and completed the weekend sweep following a 4-0 win over Houston here on Friday.

Coach Holeman reflected on the win to Georgiadogs.com.”This is obviously an incredibly big result for our team. UCF is a fantastic team, and they’re going to win a lot of games this year. They are a great possession team, and I thought we did a great job of taking them out of their rhythm today. [Garcia’s goal] certainly gave us some confidence. It was a great throw-in by Carli [Shultis] and a low serve in by Gabby [Seiler], then Rachel had a fantastic run to finish it.”

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