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SB: Georgia will host the 2024 Athens Regional beginning May 17
The University of Georgia softball team has been selected to host the 2024 NCAA Athens Regional May 17-19 at Jack Turner Stadium, the 13th NCAA Softball Regional to be held in the Classic City.
The 11th-seeded Bulldogs will host Charlotte, Liberty, and UNCW in the four-team, double-elimination tournament beginning Friday, May 17. Georgia will play UNCW Friday at 5:30 p.m., ET, on ESPN+. The tournament will kick off Friday between Charlotte and Liberty at 3 p.m. on ESPN+.
Daily tickets can be purchased online for $10 each for adults and $5 for children. They will go on sale on Wednesday, May 16, at 9 a.m. ET. UGA students will be free to attend.
All seating is general admission. Gates will open one hour prior to the first game each day.
The winner of the Athens Regional will advance to the NCAA Super Regional round against the winner of the Los Angeles Regional featuring No. 6 UCLA, Virginia Tech, San Diego State, and Grand Canyon.
Georgia will make its 22nd-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and the third under head coach Tony Baldwin. Georgia is 77-43 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, advancing to 12 Super Regionals and five Women’s College World Series, most recently in 2021.
This is the first back-to-back regionals host for Georgia since the Bulldogs hosted three straight regionals from 2014-2016.
Tickets are on sale now. All session tickets will be sold for $25 each and will only be sold online in advance of the tournament. An all-session ticket grants admission to every game of the Athens Regional. All-session tickets will only be sold until Wednesday, May 16 at 9 a.m. ET.
The Bulldogs enter the NCAA Tournament with a 39-16 record in 2024.
A total of 64 teams were selected to the NCAA Tournament, with 32 conferences awarded automatic qualification. The remaining 32 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket.In Super Regional action, eight sites play host to a best-of-three game series with the winners earning one of eight spots in the NCAA Division I Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
2024 NCAA ATHENS REGIONAL TICKET INFORMATION
General Admission Tickets: $25 all session / $10 daily
All Session Tickets
Only sold in advance of the tournament online. All-Session tickets will be sold until Wednesday, May 16 at 9 a.m. ET
Daily Tickets
Available for purchase online beginning Wednesday, May 16 at 9 a.m. ET
MGOLF: UGA opens NCAA play as the fourth seed in the Austin Regional
The Bulldogs’ lineup will consist of graduates Connor Creasy, Ben van Wyk, senior Caleb Manuel, junior Buck Brumlow and freshman Camden Smith with graduate Beck Burnette as an alternate.
The top five teams from each of the five NCAA regionals will advance to the 30-team NCAA Championships at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. from May 24-29. The lowest-scoring individual in each regional whose team does not advance will also earn a spot in the NCAA Championships to compete individually.
Dates: May 13-15, 2024
Location: Austin, Texas
Course: University of Texas Golf Club
Par/Yardage: 71/7,399
Live Stats: https://gado.gs/bvc
Tee Times: https://gado.gs/bvd
NCAA Austin Regional: Georgia’s quest for its third national title will begin in Austin, Texas. Since the 2006-07 season, the Bulldogs have placed first in the regional round six times, most recently winning the 2023 NCAA Bath Regional led by van Wyk’s first-place finish. The championship structure was moved to the regional format in the 1988-89 season.
The Bulldogs were invited to a Regional for the 28th straight year and for the 34th time in 35 seasons (missing in 1995 and excluding 2020 as the postseason was canceled). The Bulldogs have advanced from the Regional to the NCAAs 25 times.
The program is headed to its 27th Regional under head coach Chris Haack and has moved onto the NCAAs 22 times under his leadership. Haack led the Bulldogs to the 1999 and 2005 national titles, to runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2011, and the national semifinals in 2015.
Joining the fourth-seeded Bulldogs are No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Arkansas, host No. 3 Texas, No. 5 Wake Forest, No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 7 UNC-Greensboro, No. 8 BYU, No. 9 Utah, No. 10 San Jose State, No. 11 Grand Canyon, No. 12 Arkansas State and No. 13 Kansas City.
Last Time Out: Georgia most recently finished in the quarterfinals of match play at the SEC Championships in St Simons Island on April 27, falling to Arkansas by a 3-2 result. The team finished tied for fourth in the stroke play portion of the tournament after shooting 11-under-par, 829.
Smith earned 15 birdies across the three rounds of stroke play, which tied him with Matthew Ridel for the second-most of any golfer in the field. Brumlow finished tied for the second-most pars in the field with 41. With five birdies, the junior earned par or better in 46 of the 54 holes.
The Bulldogs were paced by van Wyk during the third round, carding a one-under 69 with a pair of birdies on the final three holes to close out the rounds. The graduate student also shot 68 during the first round, upping his number of rounds in the 60s this season to 14 which leads the team.
Georgia led the field in scoring average on par 5s at 4.47 per hole, good for 16-under across the three rounds. Smith earned the best average in the statistic for the Bulldogs at an average of 4.17 per par 5, totaling five-under. The program advanced to match play for the fourth time in the past five SEC Championships.
Dawgs in the Polls: On the Scoreboard Powered by Clippd rankings that were refreshed on Thursday, May 9, Georgia stands at No. 20 in the team rankings. Van Wyk leads the team with a No. 46 ranking, fellow grad student Creasy comes in at No. 121 while junior Brumlow rounds out the Bulldogs in the top 150 at No. 130.
In the PGA TOUR University rankings, van Wyk stands just outside the top 25 at No. 26, with Creasy at No. 43 while Manuel sits at No. 58.
Van Wyk, Smith Earn All-SEC Nods: Van Wyk secured a spot on the All-SEC Second Team, while Smith was selected on the All-SEC Freshman Team the league office announced on May 10.
This marks van Wyk’s first All-SEC award and is now the 46th Bulldog across 50 total selections on the All-SEC Second Team. All told, Georgia has 109 recognitions across the first and second all-conference teams in program history. Similarly, Smith is now the eighth Georgia player to earn a spot on the All-SEC Freshman Team and the fourth Bulldog represented on the team in the last seven seasons.
Van Wyk is coming off his best collegiate season as the senior finished the year with a 70.2 stroke average, which ranks as the sixth-best single-season average in program history. The 2024 Dick Copas Award winner earned five top-10 finishes during the 2023-24 campaign and a team-best 14 rounds in the 60s. A graduate student, van Wyk’s best result came in the final event of the regular season at the Calusa Cup, placing tied for second with a five-under, 211 total.
In his first collegiate season, Smith earned a pair of top-10 results with a t-6th finish at the Linger Longer Invitational and in t-7th during stroke play of the SEC Championships. In the team’s most recent event during the conference title in St Simon’s Island, Smith led the individual standings after the first round at five-under 65 and finished tied for the second most birdies in the field with 15.
Photos: 2024 Georgia vs. Vanderbilt series
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