Georgia is up a set at all six singles positions

Georgia Tech’s women’s team played earlier today and lost to No. 9 California 4-0. That ends the Yellow Jackets’ season at 16-12. The men get underway tomorrow.

I dropped by the UGA Golf Course Taylormade Rocketballz Irons before here to catch the end of the NCAA Athens Regional. Georgia is hosting 12 other teams in that event, with the top five advancing to nationals. They’ll play 36 more over the next two days to determine which teams advance.

The star of the day was North Florida’s Kevin Aylwin, who shot a round of 65 that included an eagle on the par-4 11th hole then three straight birdies.

“I think the faster the start you have, the more relaxed you become,” Alabama coach Jay Seawell said. “If you get off to a poor start, you start thinking about what can happen. But a good start kept us in the golf frame of mind instead of the qualifying frame of mind. All five guys got off to a good start, and I’m really proud of them.”

“I holed out on 11 from 87 yards, and that pretty much got me started. There’s a little bit of luck involved, but it definitely was a jump start for me. … I thought I was doing pretty well, then I started to hear that everybody else was doing well, so that felt great.”

While making the top five remains the ultimate goal, the Bulldogs insist they are still in it to win. Their aim is to run down Alabama, a team they played every round with at the SEC Championships on Sea Island.

The Bulldogs had a so-so day, closing strong to finish at 4-under as a team and in fourth place. But they were shown up TaylorMade R11S Driver by some visitors, including top-seeded Alabama, which came in with a blistering 15-under, and North Florida, which is two back at 13-under. East Carolina is in third with an 8-under team total.

Bama’s start got Georgia’s attention. The Bulldogs closed strong, with junior T.J. Mitchell making birdies on three of his last four holes to shoot and 68 and Brian Carter rallying for a 69.

Meanwhile, I’ll take this opportunity to catch you up on some other news happening in and around Athens and UGA sports.

“We’re just as good as they are,” Mitchell said. “They’re playing well. We’re starting to play well. But we know we’re just as good they are. We see what’s out there and we’re going to go out there and make as birdies as we can.”

“I looked at the scoreboard through nine discount golf clubs holes and I saw Alabama was tearing it up and I saw we were just hanging in there,” said Mitchell, Georgia’s elder statesman. “We knew there were some birdies on the back. I was hitting good shots, just not making any putts and they started falling.”