ORLANDO, Fla. — The LSU women’s golf seed knocked off a higher seed for the second time in as many days and will play for fifth place Sunday after a 4-1 win over Arkansas Saturday in a consolation “B” semifinal in the Hooters National Match Play Championships at the Eagle Creek Golf Club.
LSU, the 12th-seed in the 16-team field, didn’t lose a match on the day, winning three with the two other matches halved with late hole wins by the Lady Tigers. LSU is guaranteed a finish no worse than sixth and will meet third-seed Auburn in the fifth place match after Auburn downed Florida State 3.5-1.5. Both LSU and Auburn won first-round matches Friday before losing in the championship quarterfinals.
“Just like Friday, we came out strong and really put ourselves in position to be in control of the match,” said LSU Coach Karen Bahnsen. “I’m really happy about what we have done and to get the two matches we were trailing in back to all square in the closing holes says a lot about staying with it and not giving up. We will have a fun, but very tough match with our friends from Auburn and the girls are really looking forward to it.”
LSU is a combined 8-4-3 in its 15 matches, fifth best win total in the 16-team field after Saturday’s play.
Kim Meck made it three straight match wins for LSU in the No. 5 position with another convincing 4 and 3 win over Whitney Sylvan of Arkansas.
Rebecca Kuhn, after watching Vanderbilt’s Chris Brady put six birdies and an eagle on her Friday evening, kicked it in to gear in her match, taking a one-down match after four holes into an outstanding 6 and 5 decision over Arkansas’ Lucy Nunn. LSU’s other match win was a wire-to-wire 2up win by Nicola Eaton of LSU over Alex Schulte.
Some of the most important play of the match came late as Melissa Eaton and Alexis Rather both got matches back from 1down to all squared in the final two holes of their match to clinch the win for the Tigers.
Vanderbilt advanced to the championship match with a 3-2 upset over top-seeded Georgia, while second seed Duke had to go to a playoff to defeat Michigan State after a 2.5-2.5 tie. The halved match was played off with Duke winning on the second hole to advance the Blue Devils to the title match.
LSU and Auburn will meet at 7:30 a.m. in the fifth place match and live scoring can be found at www.golfstat.com.
LSU Results
Melissa Eaton (LSU) and Stacy Lewis (Arkansas), all square
Nicole Eaton (LSU) defeated Alex Schulte, 2 up
Rebecca Kuhn (LSU) defeated Lacy Nunn, 5 and 4
Alexis Rather (LSU) and Ashley Meddars, all square
Kim Meck (LSU) defeated Whitney Sylvan, 4 and 3