DADE CITY, Fla. – Using a final round 1-under-par 71 from sophomore Victoria Hall, the Anderson women's golf team moved up two spots against top-notch competition and finished in fourth place, Tuesday at the Saint Leo Invitational.
The Lions hosted the two-day, 36-hole tourney at the par-72, 6,105 yard, Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club South Course.
"Really proud of the grit today," said Anderson assistant coach Denton Moore. "We got off to about as bad a start as we could have. Victoria [Hall] played an exceptional round of golf today - lowest round of the tournament in the field. Very proud of her. Extremely proud of Anna Freeman after two rock solid days of golf from her. She managed her game as well as you could as far as an extremely tough track, and that is why she finished in the top-10."
Florida Southern, ranked 15th, led the tourney both days and claimed a nine-shot victory over runner-up Tampa, which is ranked 16th. The host Lions finished third, while Anderson finished in the fourth slot. West Florida was two strokes further back in fifth place, with No. 25 Central Missouri in the sixth slot.
Rollins (B), Palm Beach Atlantic and Eckerd finished out the nine-team field.
Florida Southern's Loren Perez (73-71=144) won individual medalist honors by a pair of strokes over Tampa's Sofia Cadavid (74-72=146) and by three shots over Tampa's Hallie Riley (73-74=147).
Junior Anna Freeman paced the Trojans over the two-day event and claimed a share of eighth place, while Hall equaled the low-round of the tournament by trimming eight strokes off Monday's score and firing the 1-under-par 71 in Tuesday's final round.
Freshman Emma Charles slipped into a tie for 27th place, with sophomore Kerington Lamb moving up two spots and claiming a share of 32nd place. Senior Kate Hill rounded out the Trojan contingent in a tie for 41st place.
"We still have to get better across the board, but pleased with a fourth-place finish today," added Moore. "We made all that ground up from sixth place to fourth on the back nine. As a coach, that's what you want – players that fight and grind until there are no holes left to play. We'll get a couple of good days of practice in this week and head to St Augustine and look to finish the fall off on a strong note."
The Trojans will wrap up their fall slate at next week's Flagler Fall Slam.
4 Anderson 309 306 615
T8 Anna Freeman (2) 74 75 149
T12 Victoria Hall (3) 79 71 150
T27 Emma Charles (1) 76 81 157
T32 Kerington Lamb (4) 80 79 159
T41 Kate Hill (5) 82 84 166
Team Scores
1 Florida Southern 296 291 587 +11
2 Tampa 301 295 596 +20
3 Saint Leo 297 300 597 +21
4 Anderson 309 306 615 +39
5 West Florida 302 315 617 +41
6 Central Missouri 305 315 620 +44
7 Rollins 319 316 635 +59
8 Palm Beach Atlantic 331 319 650 +74
9 Eckerd 331 329 660 +84
