LSU Remains 2nd at SEC Women's Championship; Riley T3; Tejedo T8

BELLEAIR, Florida – The LSU Tigers did nothing to hurt their chance to advance to match play with another solid round of 1-under 279, plenty good enough to remain in second after 36 holes of the Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championships at the Pelican Golf Club here on Tuesday.

The final round of stroke play competition is set for Wednesday and the top eight teams will advance to match play on Thursday, starting with the quarterfinal round.

LSU finished 36 holes at 6-under 554 after rounds of 275 and 279 to stand in second 13 strokes clear of the present cut line at 7-over par set by Mississippi State and Texas A&M at T7. It appears that after two rounds, 12-of-the-16 teams in the league are still in contention for one of the match play spots.

South Carolina continues to be the leader at 20-under par after two rounds (266-274 – 540), 14 shots ahead of LSU. Texas’ even par round of 280 was good enough to move them up into third place at 1-under par 559 (279-280). Ole Miss is at 2-over par 562 for 36 holes after a 3-over 273 with Auburn falling from third to fifth after a 9-over 289 round. Auburn is at 5-over 565 for the tournament (276-289). Tennessee moved up to sixth place at 6-over 566.

Individually for the Tigers, San Diego junior Taylor Riley has put together two solid rounds of 68-68 for a two-day total of 4-under 136 which is good enough for a tie for third place, three shots behind the lead of Eila Galitsky of South Carolina at 7-under par 133 (65-68). Gamecock teammate Hannah Darling is second at 6-under 134 65-69 with Riley tied with Caitlyn Macnab of Ole Miss for third after also shooting back-to-back rounds of 68.

Riley’s round on Monday included back-to-back-to-back birdies on the par 5 seventh hole, the par 4 eighth hole and the par 3 ninth hole to close her round. Tuesday, playing the front nine first, Riley responded with birdie on number 7 and 8 with a par on 9.

The eighth hole at some 425 yards has allowed just 11 birdies in two days and Riley has two of them.

“Taylor been playing very well for us,” said LSU Head Golf Coach Garrett Runion. “On 7, 8 and 9, she seems to like those, has a good eye for it, with 5-under in a six-hole stretch.”

The team as a whole improved its play on the tricky 18th hole over the water with Aine Donegan getting a birdie and Rocio Tejedo dropping a nice long par putt to finish as a counting score.

“I think we played the back nine, a little better than Monday,” said Runion. “They moved the tee up on 18. I think it played tougher with the wind and we just played disciplined golf. It was nice with Aine making a birdie on 18. It was a great finish by her, playing the final five holes in 2-under par. Rocio (Tejedo) made nine straight pars on the back nine.”

Donegan finished with an even par round of 70 and LSU also counted a 1-under round of 69 from senior Elsa Svensson and a 2-over 74 from Tejedo. The Spanish freshman is in a tie for eighth at 2-under par 138 and Svensson at even par 140 is in a tie for 15th place heading to Wednesday.

On the two par 5 holes on the course, LSU leads the field with a 4.55 average, while LSU is second on the par 4 holes at 4.03.

LSU as a team has 39 birdies through two days, second in the field. Riley has 11 birdies T2 in the field.

The third and final round of stroke play is set for Wednesday and besides the eight teams to advance to match play for the league championship, the individual winner will be crowned as well. LSU will again be in the first wave of the morning at 8 a.m. ET (7 a.m. CT) again with South Carolina and this time with Texas joining the trio.

The Tiger head coach wants his team still playing at its best on Wednesday.

“Absolutely,” he said on the mindset for the final round. “On 12 today (the par 3 over water), the pin was on the right and it was tough, and I said, ‘go right at it.’ I said that we’re not here to play it safe. We’re here to be aggressive, because you’re not guaranteed a par or anything out. So I think that the message overall is to go out there and take it and not be conservative or timid. We want to be aggressive and smart with our decisions and take aggressive confident swings.”

Live scoring can be found on Golfstat.com and the SEC Women’s Stroke Play tab.

SEC Women’s Golf Championships
Belleair, Florida – Pelican Golf Club
Second Round Team Results (Par 280-560)
Rankings from NCAA Scoreboard by Clippd
1 No. 4 South Carolina 266-274 – 540 -20
2 No. 11 LSU 275-279 – 556 -6
3 No. 6 Texas 279-280 – 559 -1
4 No. 18 Ole Miss 279-283 – 562 +2
5 No. 14 Auburn 276-289 – 565 +5
6 Tennessee 283-283 – 566 +6
T7 No. 20 Mississippi State 283-284 – 567 +7
T7 No. 16 Texas A&M 284-283 – 567 +7
T9 No. 2 Arkansas 288-280 – 568 +8
T9 No. 24 Florida 282-286 – 568 +8
11 Alabama 286-284 – 570 +10
12 Kentucky 286-292 – 578 +18
13 Oklahoma 288-296 – 584 +24
14 Missouri 288-297 – 585 +25
15 No. 21 Vanderbilt 288-302 – 590 +30
16 Georgia 306-298 – 604 +44

Individual Top 5 (Par 70-140)
1 Eila Galitsky, South Carolina – 65-68 – 133 -7
2 Hannah Darling, South Carolina – 65-69 – 134 -6
T3 Taylor Riley, LSU – 68-68 – 136 -4
T3 Caitlyn Macnab, Ole Miss – 68-68 –136 -4
T5 Louise Rydqvist, South Carolina – 68-69 – 137 -3
T5 Anna Davis, Auburn – 65-72 – 137 -3
T5 Farah O’Keefe, Texas, 67-70 – 137 -3

LSU Scores
T3 Taylor Riley – 68-68 – 136 -4
T8 Rocio Tejedo – 66-72 – 138 -2
T15 Elsa Svensson – 71-69 – 140 E
T24 Aine Donegan – 72-70 – 142 +2
T30 Josefin Widal – 70-73 – 143 +3