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Wednesday, April 7, aoio | The Red * Black
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FILE I Th* Rid * Black
▲ Courney McCool has been a vocal
leader for the Gym Dogs this season.
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McCool breathes life into Gym Dogs
Senior * excited' to
return to home state
By MICHAEL FITZPATRICK
The Red & Black
Courtney McCool never dwelled on
the possibility of competing in Missouri
, for the NCAA Regionals April 10.
She never sat and hoped that she
would get the chance to compete in her
home state for the first time in four
years and, in one of the final gymnastics
meets in her illustrious career.
“It’s going to be so much, ftin l’m
so excited,” the senior from Lee’s
Summit, Mo., said.
McCool who has 20 tickets for
friends and family never seriously
considered attending the University of
Missouri, a school only 90 minutes from
her home in the Kansas City suburbs,
despite having friends and teammates
attend there. I
“I would have loved to go there, but I
already knew [Georgia] was my home
and I hadn’t even visited here yet,”
McCool said. "I just knew it when I
talked to the coaches and the girls on
the team and I knew that God was
intending for me go here, so it wasn’t a
hard decision at all, and I never really
considered attending Missouri.”
Even though she visits the Mizzou
campus in Columbia, Mo., every sum
mer to visit friends and old teammates,
McCool’s blood runs red and black.
And when the Gym Dogs take to the
Heames Center floor Saturday night,
McCool will have no love lost for any
one, especially those in the black and
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SPORTS
gold leotards. She and her Georgia
teammates are there to make a state
ment.
“What we do is a reflection of Georgia,
and it’s just like competing for your
country,” McCool said earlier this sea
son. “You’re competing for your college
competing for Georgia and to show
what Georgia's about.”
For someone who has represented
her country —■ winning team silver in
the 2004 Olympid Summer Games in
Athens, Greece that statement
speaks volumes to her commitment.
“I’m just so glad it worked out for her
to be able to go home to Missouri once
during her career,” head coach Jay Clark
said. “She has been our life this year,
and she has been our driving force this
year.
“She's been our rock, and I’m so
proud of the growth she has had as a
gymnast and a person. This kid is com
mitted right now.”
“Committed” may not be a strong
enough adjective to describe McCool’s
tenacious desire for victory.
“I have not yet met a person like
Courtney McCool,” freshman Christa
Tanella said. “I have never met someone
with the leadership she shows on a
yearly basis, and I have so much respect
for her.
“She has an undying passion for life,
and it’s addicting. When you are near
her, she Infects you with it. She’s an
essential part of our team’s attitude and
our team’s breakthroughs and every
thing we have accomplished.”
McCool’s voice can often be heard
shouting encouragement in both the
practice gym and competition, but she
wasn't always that way. She knew it
wasn’t necessarily her place until her
Offense to
dominate
rivalry
matchup
By ZACH DILLARD
The Red & Black
The build-up to this eve
ning’s highly-anticipated
matchup has been a bumpy
one for Georgia softball.
There have been big
time wins that have seemed
to supply the team with
momentum.
Then there have been
the disappointing losses.
But all of those games
will be distant memories
when No. 12 Georgia (27-8)
faces off against No. 6
Georgia Tech (32-5) in one
of the highest profile games
between the two rivals in
recent memory.
With both teams ranked
among the top 15 teams in
the country, very few words
will be necessary from each
coach to get their respec
tive teams riled up.
In fact, perhaps the
players already are.
“Like you said, it is a
rivalry —and that’s all that
really needs to be said for a
game like this,” junior first
baseman Brianna Hesson
said following Monday’s
10-0 victory over Georgia
Southern.
Although the Bulldogs
have enjoyed more success
of late on the national level,
the Yellow Jackets have
made certain to keep the
rivalry intense and relevant
by taking five of the past
seven games.
The Yellow Jackets are
enjoying arguably the best
season in school history in
LOSS: Relief efforts no use for Bulldogs
► From Pago 1
Freeman, Schaus and
Parker put an end to
Esmonde’s night and
stretched the Tiger lead to
“She has been our life this
year, and she has been our
driving force this year. She’s
been our rock...”
Jay Clam
Gym Dogs Head Coach
senior year of course.
“This team feeds off our vocal lead
ers, and Courtney really has taken up
that role,” Junior Cassidy McComb said.
“Last year, she wasn’t that person, but
this year she has stepped up and pro
vides whatever we need at that time.”
She anchors all three of her events
uneven bars, balance beam and the
floor exercise —and early in the season,
her scores ultimately determined wheth
er the Gym Dogs came out victorious or
not.
“Words don’t even describe how key
she is, not only on the floor, but off it,”
McComb said. “Her mentality is there
all the time. She is picking everyone up
all the time and her attitude is always
there and always for the team.”
And as the finality of her gymnastics
career rapidly approaches, she has her
mind —and heart set on finishing the
way she came to Georgia: as a champi
on.
"[The last few meets] are going to be
extremely special, and I am just ready
to go out with a bang,” McCool said.
“I’m ready to finish what we started this
year and to just epjoy our last few weeks
together as the 2010 Gym Dogs, and hit
our peak at nationals.”
■ \ jj
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FILE ! Thu Red * Black
▲ Alison Owen is 5-0 on the season with a
1.79 ERA in 31.1 innings of work. The
freshman has posted 39 strikeouts for Georgia.
2010, already putting
together 32 wins while lead
ing the Atlantic Coast
Conference standings by
two games.
Redshirt senior Jen Yee
has driven the offense for
Georgia Tech the entire
season, putting up domi
nant numbers en route to
what could very well be
another All-American year
for the second baseman.
The Canadian Olympic
team member has torched
opposing pitching at a .567
clip, all while hitting 19
home runs and 46 RBIs.
The Yellow Jackets' line
up has hit a total of 74
home runs on the season,
driving in nearly seven runs
'a game.
And with a Bulldog
offense that has sent 61
shots sailing over outfield
fences this season, there
could be plenty of fireworks
in downtown Atlanta.
“They are a really good
team we are going to
have to go down there and
fight to get a win,” Hesson
6-0.
Left-hander Justin Earls
was the next Bulldog to
take the mound, and the
senior was greeted with a
hard-hit, run-scoring
grounder up the middle by
Tiger right fielder Wilson
Boyd that gave Clemson a
7-0 lead.
Two more runs crossed
before Earls was able to
put an end to the
nightmarish second,
with Clemson hold
ing a sizeable 9-0
lead.
“Obviously down
nine is not a really
good scenario, but
you know all I can
do Is go out there
and throw strikes
and do what I can
do and try to con-
trol what I can control and
that’s throwing strikes,”
Earls said.
The Bulldogs got on tlje
scoreboard In the bottom
third after right fielder
Peter Verdin capitalized on
a leadoff single by third
baseman Kevin Ruiz with a
two-out double of his own
that scored Ruiz to trim
the Clemson lead to 9-1.
Georgia center fielder
GEORGIA VS.
GEORGIA TECH
When: Today at 7 p.m.
Where: Atlanta
More Information: Georgia
returns home April 17
said.
The Yellow Jackets top
pitcher has been freshman
Hope Rush (18-3), while
junior Sarah McCloud (5-1)
could get the call to the
circle for the Bulldogs.
McCloud, Georgia’s
most experienced pitcher,
sports a 2.51 ERA through
11 games and was one of
the team’s saviors during
the Arkansas series —as
she helped to pitch, pre
venting Arkansas from
sweeping Georgia.
Georgia owns the all
time advantage 16-9 over
the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech is 10-1 at
home this season, while the
Bulldogs have only played
10 games total on the road
heading into the matchup.
GEORGIA VS. CLEMSON
Whan: Today at 630 p.m.
Where: Clemson, S.C.
Zach Cone extended his
current hitting streak to 18
games with a leadoff triple
to start the third, before
Cone was brought home by
first baseman
Robert Shipman's
sacrifice grounder
to make it a 9-2
game.
After Bulldog
relievers Earls and
Zach Laughlin com
bined to hold the
Tigers scoreless for
four Innings, the
Tigers added one
run In the seventh,
\ . w . % wf
EARLS
before a five-run eighth
Inning explosion.
The eighth Included a
grand slam from Tigers
third baseman Justin
Hinson that put the game
out of reach for the
Bulldogs.
Georgia travels to
Clemson’s Klngsmore
Stadium tonight for the
second leg of the midweek
series.