TALLAHASSEE, FLA – Solene Le Coz made five birdies en route to a 73 (+1) in pacing Georgia State in Sunday's final round in the third annual Florida State Match-Up at Southwood Golf Course.
The sophomore from Le Rainy, France followed Saturday's four birdie-performance to post the 73, her career-best collegiate round. She tied for 23rd in the 68-golfer field with 76-76-73, 229 (+9).
Georgia State topped two teams with Sunday's final round 303 team score, but still finished 12th in the field for the 54 holes. No. 26 Furman won with No. 7 Mississippi State second, No. 16 Virginia third and No. 2 South Carolina fourth. Seven teams entered this tournament in the top 50 and 11 teams in the top 100 rankings. The Panthers were hit by the flu bug before the event and played three freshmen in this weekend's event.
Newcomer Yasemin Sari (Kadenbach, Germany) played her first event since enrolling at GSU in January. Each day show improvement from 89 to 83 to a final-round 76 with two birdies. Freshman Paula Zabarte (Madrid, Spain) was second for GSU with 79-83-77.
“Obviously it is a disappointment overall, but there are plenty of positives we can bring out of this as we move forward,” head coach Cathy Mant said. “I am extremely delighted with Solene Le Coz posting her best scores and best tournament that shows her potential. It was good to see Yaseman Sari get acclimated and improve by six strokes on day two and seven more strokes on day three.”
“In general, we hit the ball well, but then we cost ourselves with the poor putting on the Bermuda greens on this course,” Mant noted. “We know what we need to work on and will diligently go about that as we can in practices in February.”
Georgia State gets right back on the course in a week with the Amelia Island Collegiate in Jacksonville, Fla. on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 23-24.
