Surviving three rounds of stroke play and the first round of singles match play, No. 4 Texas A&M women’s golf fell 3-2 to No. 18 Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference semifinals, making an early exit in its SEC Championship run in Belleair, Florida. No. 11 sophomore Vanessa Borovilos notched a runner-up finish in stroke play shooting a three-day total of 6-under, 204.
After defending their home course at the “Mo” Morial in the final outing of the regular season, the Aggies entered the postseason with a first-place plaque freshly placed in the trophy case. In last year’s edition of the SEC Championship, they finished not too far beyond the cut line in 10th, however it was far enough to terminate their chances at the match play portion of the contest.
But this year was a different story, the Aggies lived past the first three rounds of stroke play, advancing to the match play quarterfinals for the fourth day of the contest. A 4-under, 276 team total on Day 1 put the Maroon and White tied for first and kept spirits high in the fight for a potential fourth day. Borovilos led the pack with a 4-under, 66, which got her an early headstart to the top of the leaderboard.
The next two rounds saw an upward trend of scores across the Fightin’ Farmers collecting back-to-back over-par days for the squad’s total. Going 1-over on Day 1 and 6-over on Day 2 dropped the Aggies just above the cut line in 7th. With each round, a new front-runner led the Maroon and White. No. 22 junior Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio led the second round with a 3-under, 67 and No. 65 freshman Brynn Kort, in her very first SEC Championship, finally got used to the water in Florida on the third day with a 1-under, 69.
Borovilos’ performance in the second and third round held her steady enough to claim a runner-up finish with a three-day total of 6-under, 204, notching her second runner-up finish in as many tournaments. With the top eight teams advancing to the match play quarterfinals, A&M finished tied for seventh, nicking the cut line and making it to the Monday rounds.
The Aggies first threat was a rival matchup with an instate-foe, No. 5 Texas. The Longhorns, who took second place in the stroke play portion, was the first wave of orange the Aggies were going to experience. Borovilos struck first for the Maroon and White, ending her match at the Hole 13 green against Longhorn senior Angela Heo.
Kort and Garcia-Poggio followed suit, ending their matches after going up 3 & 2 and 5 & 4, respectively.
With 3 of the 5 Fightin’ Farmers’ matches ending in favor of the Aggies in the quarterfinals, they advanced to the afternoon semifinals round against Tennessee. The Lady Volunteers took 6th place after the three stroke-play rounds, finishing just one stroke ahead of the Aggies. Tennessee took down Oklahoma 4-1 in its first round of match play singles and preyed on A&M for its ticket to the finals.
While every stroke and hole thought to have held importance during the past four rounds, it all boiled down to a sudden-death 19th hole between No. 95 junior Sky Sudberry and Tennessee sophomore Sofie Engesæth.
Sudberry was one-up headed into the 18th hole, but Engesæth won the hole with a birdie to extend the match. Hole 19 seemed to sway in the same direction, as Sudberry was plagued with a bogey as Engesæth was still capitalizing on momentum she found on the previous hole. The Lady Volunteer penciled in a par on the final hole, taking the match and sending Tennessee to the finals for the first time in program history.
A&M will continue its postseason campaign at the NCAA regional on Monday, May 11-13.
