LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 2 Anderson University women's golf team wrapped up their first spring event with a fourth place showing at the Lady Moc Classic hosted by Florida Southern at the Grasslands Country Club.
Anderson finished +47 for the event, 15 strokes behind the team champions in Barry. The Trojans were just six strokes out of second and four strokes out of third in the event, with Wingate and Lynn taking those spots on the leader board.
"This was a tough week, against an extremely loaded field," commented director of golf Denton Moore. "The conditions were even tougher. You don't get a lot of cold weeks in Florida, but this one was brutal. I haven't coached in wind like that in quite some time. Monday in particular was really rough. We played solid golf Monday and put ourselves in position to win today. Unfortunately, we just made too many big mistakes today. I really thought we played well overall."
"Again, at the end of the day, it was just some costly big mistakes that kept us from getting a win. We put these girls in the toughest events week in and week out. Fourth place in this field is certainly nothing to complain about. The standard here at Anderson is extremely high. We didn't quite meet that standard in the final round."
Freshman Olivia Roberts (Chesnee, S.C.) and senior Kennedy Gooding (Lexington, S.C.) each finished tied for 12th in the event with overall scores of +10 on the week. Senior Paige Paolucci (Blythewood, S.C.) and sophomore Olivia Pellerin (Greenville, S.C.) each finished tied for 28th in the lineup for the Trojans while senior Aly Francis (Stockbridge, Ga.) took home a 35th place finish.
Competing individually for the Trojans, senior Claudia Hastings (Liverpool, England) was able to post a strong final round to finish 22nd in the field while sophomore Peyton O'Brien (Salem, S.C.) rounded out the participants with a 77th place finish.
"Olivia Roberts continues to be the best freshman in the country. She had a solid week with a 12th place finish. Kennedy Gooding was excellent in round 1 and round 3 and had another good week with a 12th place finish as well. Olivia Pellerin, Claudia Hastings, Paige Paolucci, Aly Francis, and Peyton O'Brien all had solid rounds as well to help us lock up a solid start to the spring season."
"We head to Wingate in two weeks for a huge event. The event will host 7 teams ranked in the top 10. We will put all of our attention for the next week on getting prepped for that. The key to this team is going to be getting them to peak in May. We are going to the postseason, and that's where you really want to be playing your absolute best. Go Trojans!"
Anderson heads to the Stonebridge Golf Club in Monroe, N.C. for the Jerry Surratt Memorial on March 9-10.
