Florida battled all morning and afternoon long, falling to No. 2 LSU 3-0-2.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Florida women’s golf team battled all day long, but was edged late by No. 2 LSU 3-0-2 in the SEC Championship Finals on Sunday.
UF entered the match play portion of the conference tournament seeking its first ever victory after back-to-back years (2018-19) of 3-2 setbacks as the format was added in 2018. The No. 5 seeded Gators went on and knocked off No. 1 Auburn and No. 4 Ole Miss.
Two great putts by LSU to start pushed them ahead of Florida as they won the first hole on all five matchups. The Gators started to chip away as both Clara Manzalini tied her match with a birdie on four and Jackie Lucena erased a two hole deficit with back-to-back wins on three and four.
Play was halted due to lighting in the area two hours into the match 11:17 a.m. and both teams resumed at 12:20 p.m. in the spitting rain.
Florida and LSU fought all the way to the end as Maisie Filler won three straight holes in the restart of play to lead 1-up making the turn. She was again clutch in her outing with a putt on 16 to keep the Gators title hunt alive after LSU clinched two points behind wins in the No. 1 (4&3) and No. 3 (6&5) matchups.
Manzalini grinded all afternoon long with her opponent, tying 10 individual holes and going to extra that went unfinished. Lucena kept the Gators hopes intact with a victory on 17. However, the No. 2 seeded Tigers, clinched their first SEC Conference Title in 30 years as Latanna Stone placed a perfect approach shot on 18 to setup the match clinching putt.
Florida will await its NCAA Regional (May 9-11) destination on April 27 at 5 p.m. with the selection show airing on Golf Channel.
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