Tiger Women's Golf Falls In Quarterfinal Round of SEC Championship

BELLEAIR, Florida – The LSU women’s golf team couldn’t overcome a fast start by the Florida Gators and dropped a 5-0 decision to Florida in the match play quarterfinal rounds of the Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championship at the Pelican Golf Club here on Thursday.

The Tigers, the No. 2 seed after a strong qualifying 54 holes, now awaits its NCAA Regional location and those will be announced on Wednesday on The Golf Channel.

LSU found itself down quickly in four of the matches losing the advantage on the third hole in one match, the first on a second and two more on the second hole of play. The Gators were making good work on the green, continuing from their final round of stroke play when they posted their first under par round of the tournament on Wednesday.

“We did not get off to the best start and we couldn’t seem to flip it,” said LSU Coach Garrett Runion. “Momentum is a big part of match play and getting off to a good start certainly helps. We did not get off to a strong start like we did last year here. We had trouble flipping the matches and all credit to Florida. They played very steady, very consistent and did not make many mistakes. They were very hard to beat.”

Senior Elsa Svensson, who was on the 2022 SEC Championship team had the best run of the day, building a 3UP lead after six holes against Paula Francisco. The match was tied on the 10th hole but Svensson came back to take a lead on the short par 4 11th. The match was tied again on the par 3 12th hole but Svensson came right back to take the lead on the 13th hole.

Francisco would tie the match on the 14th hole and take the lead on the 15th, but Francisco had water trouble on the 16th allowing Swenson to tie the match again. But on 17, Francisco would make a lengthy birdie putt to go 1UP and would win the match with the contestants around the 18th green and play halted because Florida had the three necessary points for the victory prior to the match finishing.

But overall, in the Scoreboard by Clippd rankings it will go down as a good week as the stroke play portion will count as a second place on the Tigers resume and freshman Rocio Tejedo and junior Taylor Riley shared second place in the individual competition.

“I’m proud of the ladies, the way they played in stroke play to finish second in the strongest, deepest conference. There is something to be said of that,” said Coach Runion. “We are one of two teams with an active streak of five straight match play appearances. One of two teams to make the top eight the last five years. I’m proud of that. That shows we are around it. It’s just so hard to win this championship. And that’s why it means so much when you do because it’s so deep and strong now with Texas and Oklahoma.

“I’m proud of our two freshmen (Tejedo and Josefin Widal) for the way they played to get us into the top eight. Taylor and Rocio finishing runner-up in the SEC Championship. There’s a lot of positives to take from this week We have a lot to play for the rest of the year. We have arguably the most important tournament next in regionals to make it in the top five to advance to the national championship.”

Teams will be selected to one of six regional sites for the first step in the NCAA Road to Carlsbad and the national championship. Those regionals are in Columbus, Ohio; Lexington, Kentucky; Norman, Oklahoma; Gold Canyon, Arizona; Lubbock, Texas and Charlottesville, Virginia.

LSU-SEC Quarterfinal Match Results
Belleair, Florida – Pelican Golf Club
Florida 5, LSU 0
Karoline Tuttle (UF) d. Aine Donegan (LSU), 6&5
Paula Francisco (UF) d. Elsa Svensson (LSU), 1UP (Match stopped on 18th hole)
Ines Archer (UF) d. Rocio Tejedo (LSU), 1UP (Match stopped on 17th hole)
Jessica Guiser (UF) d. Josefin Widal (LSU), 4&3
Addison Klonowski (UF) d. Taylor Riley (LSU), 3&2