Our Men’s Golf team is excelling so far in the first round of the SEC Championship at Sea Island Golf Club, the Seaside Course at St. Simons Island, GA. Presently, we are leading the tournament at 5 under par, 3 shots ahead of South Carolina and Georgia, which are at 2 under. Senior Reid Davenport is at -3, sophomore Cole Sherwood is at -2 and freshman Gordon Sargent is at -2. Our fourth scorer is Harrison Ott at +2. We are through holes 7-11. A lot of golf left, a lot, but a super start by the team. Will let you know where we stand at the end fo the round. There will be 3 stroke play rounds today, Thursday and Friday and the top 8 scoring teams will play match play after that starting Saturday and concluding Sunday.

VU Baseball

Baseball won 7-0 last night over Tennessee Tech to move to 26-10 on the season as freshman lefty Devin Futrell put together another stellar performance. Futrell went 6, gave up 3 hits, 0 runs with 0 walks and 6 K’s. Devin moved to 8-0 overall and his ERA is now a team best 1.85. Brett Hansen, Jack Anderson and Nick Maldonado finished it off each pitching an inning for the final 3 frames. Nick allowed 0 runs, 0 hits with a walk and 2 K’s. Would love to get him going again. We now head to Lexington to face Kentucky for a weekend series. Kentucky is 5-10 in the SEC and 21-16 overall, but they are capable and it’s on the road, so we must bear down there. Game 1 is Friday at 5:30 PM CT on SEC Network+. Saturday’s game is at 11 AM CT on the SEC Network, and Sunday’s game is at 12 PM CT on SEC Network+. Will keep you posted as much as I can. I have to leave town for a couple of days, but will be back Saturday for more coverage on the teams.

VU Football

Football spring game ended in a 32-32 tie. Sounded like there were a lot of solid individual performances. Ken Seals, Mike Wright and A.J. Swann all played well under center. Some of our younger receivers performed well, and our offensive line is coming along. Defensively, we’re better this season. Will have more on the game next week. Our schedule is a beast. We open @Hawaii, Saturday, Aug. 27th, We host Elon, Saturday, Sept. 3rd, we host a very good Wake Forest team, Saturday, Sept. 10th, we’re @Northern Illinois, Saturday, Sept. 17th, we’re @Alabama, wow, Saturday, Sept. 24th, versus Ole Miss, Saturday, Oct.8th, @Georgia, another monumental one, Saturday, Oct. 15th, @Missouri, Saturday, Oct. 22nd, Off, then versus South Carolina, Saturday, Nov. 5th, @Kentucky, Saturday, Nov.12th, versus Florida, Saturday, Nov. 19th, versus Tennessee, Saturday, Nov.26th.

We’re going to have to play hard to make a bowl game. That’s the goal. Can we achieve it? We’ve got a shot. We’ll have to do well in the non-conference slate and then pull off a couple of upsets in SEC play. South Carolina and Missouri look like our most winnable opportunities, but we’ll be a lot better in year 2 under Clark, so excited to see the guys compete. Will have more on the spring game next week.

Women’s Tennis

The VU Women’s Tennis team won 4 out of their last 5 and play Ole Miss Thursday at 11 AM CT in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Gainesville, FL. We finished the season 15-8 overall and 6-7 in conference. We just came off a weekend sweep of Mississippi State and Ole Miss at the Currey Tennis Center. So the women are getting hot. Will keep you posted.

Men’s Tennis

The Men’s team finished its season at 14-11 overall and 2-10 in the SEC. We face Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament right now. It started at 10 AM CT. Need a good showing in this tournament to have a shot at the NCAA’s. We probably have to win it.

****Update on Men’s Golf****

We are now -7 overall and lead South Carolina and Georgia by 5 shots. Those teams are -2. We are through 9 holes except for Reid Davenport, who has played 10. Reid is 4 under, Gordon is 3 under, and Cole is 2 under.

I forgot to mention this, but Gordon Sargent and Cole Sherwood were selected to the Palmer Cup team, the prestigious Amateur Ryder Cup like competition between the U.S. and Europe. 12 players are selected for both sides. Huge honor for Gordon and Cole and they are both highly deserving. The competition will be held July 1-3 at the Golf Club de Geneve in Switzerland. So huge deal for our 2 studs. Sherwood is the 2nd ranked player in the country and Sargent is 4th. Great stuff from the guys.