Missouri women’s golf fell to Georgia Southern in Athens, Georgia over the weekend, succumbing to a sweep in their first match-play event since 2018 in the SEC Championship.
In match play, players from either squad go head-to-head with the focus of winning a hole, rather than the traditional tournament format of counting strokes from an entire round. Whichever player records the fewest strokes on one singular hole wins that hole, and whoever wins the most holes out of the 18 will win the match. If a player is ahead by more holes than are left on the course, then that player automatically wins the match. If a player is up three holes with only two remaining, then that player will take home a 3-and-2 victory.
The Tigers were coming off one of their strongest events of the season at the Florida State Match-Up, where they placed fifth and finished above Houston, marking Missouri’s first defeat of a top-25 team since 2021. Despite the positive momentum, Missouri dropped all five matches to the Georgia Southern Eagles, leading in only 13 out of the 74 total holes played during the event.
Sophomore Fleur van Beek came closest to pulling out a victory for Missouri, as she sat one up on LoraLie Cowart as far as the 11th hole before eventually falling 3-and-1. Senior Ffion Tynan also held a short one-up lead on Kelsey Chen by the third hole before eventually conceding to a 3-and-2 loss.
Juniors Melanie Walker and Jade Zamora were the first to play for Missouri, teeing off at 9:00 a.m. and 9:05 a.m against Louise Reau and Regina Plascencia. However, the two Tigers both suffered convincing defeats in their matches, losing 5-and-4 and 7-and-6, respectively.
Freshman Alexandra Berglund was fresh off an SEC Freshman of the Week nomination and a career-best No. 15 finish at the Florida State Match-Up. She led up until the seventh hole but eventually fell 4-and-3 to Mary Miller, who fired off four birdies and an eagle in her last nine holes to take home the freshman faceoff.
The Tigers didn’t have to wait long to regain their footing, as they stayed in Athens, Georgia to compete in the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic on April 8, where they placed third overall.
Edited by Killian Wright | kwright@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com
Edited by Annie Goodykoontz | agoodykoontz@themaneater.com