Wednesday's Central Georgia Daily News 'n Notes: Scoreboard, GHSA championship softball, SoCon big on Mercer women's hoops, Tech and GSU-Statesboro in action, Braves, and footballfootballfootball
Wednesday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.
The college football schedule for the weekend is in The Latest Coverage, along with the state h.s. football polls. The Scoreboard is in the DNnN today.
SCOREBOARD
WEDNESDAY
Scores
High School
Volleyball
Glynn Academy def. Houston County 3-1
Houston County is eliminated in 6A.
Northside-Columbus def. Perry 3-0
Perry is eliminated in 4A.
College
Soccer
W-Young Harris 2, Georgia College 1
Volleyball
Columbia Int’l def FVSU 21-25, 25-19, 25-11, 18-25, 15-12
Pro
NBA
Central Georgia GHSA softball teams advance to Columbus, Westfield and Piedmont set for GISA finale
The Central Georgia contingent that headed to Columbus for the GHSA championship rounds of the softball tournament sure know the way.
For one, all nine were there last year, eight won at least a game, and Monticello and Tattnall played for state championships.
FPD won the Class A Private title in 2016.
Westfield and Piedmont, meanwhile, will be in action Saturday at Mercer in the GISA Class AAA and AA finals.
The complete Central Georgia pairings for GHSA and GISA are in The Latest Coverage.
More to come Thursday morning.
Mercer women the Southern Conference favorite, Calloway the POY
The target in Southern Conference women’s basketball?
It’s on Mercer.
The Bears are the top pick in the conference coaches and media polls to win it again, having won the last three regular-season titles, sharing co-favorite honors in the coaches list with ETSU, the Bears getting one more first-place vote.
And Mary Persons grad KeKe Calloway is the pick as the preseason player of the year.
She averaged 16.9 points and 3.5 rebounds, and set the conference and program record with 99 3-pointers. She’s 15th on the program list with 1,218 points.
Mercer went 30-3 last year, 17-0 in conference under coach of the year Susie Gardner. The Bears lost to Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Mercer returns three starters, Calloway joined by first-team all-conference pick Amanda Thompson and Dodge County grad Rachel Selph.
Gardner begins her ninth year at Mercer with a 144-110 record, 320-257 overall in 19 seasons.
Mercer opens the season on Nov. 9 at wake forest, then follows a visit to Georgia Southern with the home opener on Nov. 15 against Florida.
Area volleyball field in state tournament done
It’s been a rough postseason for Central Georgia’s high school volleyball teams.
They’re done.
Houston County was the last holdout, falling 3-1 to Glynn Academy Wednesday night in 6A action. Earlier in the day, Perry lost 3-0 to Northside-Columbus in 4A.
Mount de Sales was eliminated in A-AA Private 3-1 by Savannah Christian, and West Laurens fell to Woodward 3-0 in 4A and Veterans 3-0 to Statesboro in 5A.
No area team won more than one match.
Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern in big games Thursday
Peach State college football fans need to rest a thumb during the day with two games at night to check in on.
Georgia Southern welcomes its first FBS top-25 team when Appalachian State visits, on ESPNU at 7:30 p.m.
At the same time, Georgia Tech will watch another edition of “Enter Sandman” when the Yellow Jackets take on Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, on ESPN at 7:30 p.m.
For more on both games, and a couple looks at always-cool “Sandman,” head to The Latest Coverage in the morning for Thursday’s Peach State college football scouting reports.
Do the Braves need an ace?
Or is what they have in the rotation and farm system enough?
Football updates
Georgia
Nitty gritty time for SEC contenders
Practice update: “So Coach, about the quarterbacks, talk about …”
Run game should have chances against the Gators
Georgia State
Falcons