Dani Murguia arrived at Georgia as a midfielder, but has put up her best season yet in 2021 as a striker 14 games into the season.
Bulldogs head coach Billy Lesesne organized Murguia’s transition from midfield to forward at the beginning of her junior season, evaluating her versatile skill set as too valuable to the team despite the talent depth in midfield.
“Dani is such a well rounded player,” Lesesne said. “She could play about any position you ask of her, and I think we’re a better performing team when Dani’s on the field.”
So, Lesesne found her a spot up top next to the nation’s leading scorer, Mollie Belisle.
With SEC placement at stake and five minutes remaining in a 3-3 game, Georgia turned to its forward partnership, as it has all season, to send the Gators chomping their way back to Gainesville, Florida in defeat.
Dani Murguia got loose on the right hand side and whipped in an inch-perfect cross to Mollie Belisle, whose header rippled the net and sent the Georgia crowd into absolute mayhem. It was a cross that you just knew would set the graduate forward up for the game winner the second it left Muguia’s right foot.
“Me making that run out wide, I knew Mollie was going to put in the effort to get in the box,” Murguia said. “It was the perfect run. That moment was everything we’ve been doing all year.”
Georgia women’s basketball defeated Mercer 67-52 Thursday night at Stegeman Coliseum in its third game of the season. The Bulldogs advanced to 3-0 with the win, while Mercer dropped to 2-2.
“Mercer is a really good team, and we knew they were going to come in and play us tough,” Georgia head coach Joni Taylor said. “You’re talking about a team who has won their conference championship and been to the NCAA tournament three out of the last four years, so we knew they were going to come in and defend us well. They’re very familiar with us, we’re very familiar with them.”
Georgia’s Jenna Staiti, Que Morrison and Javyn Nicholson each registered a team-high 13 points with Staiti adding 12 rebounds to her performance. Amoria Neal-Tysor led the Bears with a game-high 19 points on 7-for-17 shooting.
Despite several delays, No. 13 Georgia men’s tennis defeated Vanderbilt 4-1 on a rainy afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
Sunday’s win marked Georgia’s fourth straight win in conference play. The Bulldogs are now 11-5 on the season and 5-4 in SEC play, while the Commodores fell to 5-11 and 0-8 in the SEC.
After his heroics against Kentucky on Friday, Billy Rowe clinched the victory for the Bulldogs for the second time this weekend. Rowe defeated Max Freeman 7-5, 6-2 and earned the 4-1 win against his former team.
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