The Florida men’s golf team finished tied for seventh place at the Southeastern Conference Championships, shooting a 2-over-par in St. Simons Island, Georgia, this weekend.
The Gators ended the three-round tournament 15 shots off of the eventual winners, LSU.
Seniors J.D. Tomlinson and Eric Banks both finished their final SEC Championship tournament in the top-25 along with freshman Alejandro Tosti.
Tomlinson continued to lead the team and finished the tournament tied for 11th place after shooting 2-under-par.
Tosti shot 1-under-par for a share of 17th and Banks shot 1-over-par and finished tied for 23rd.
“I’m so proud of the guys,” coach JC Deacon said in a release. “We’ve come so far this year, and it’s a completely different team than we had in September…. I don’t think we played our best golf this week, but we hung so tough and tried on every shot, and I think we had a pretty good finish.”
Junior A.J. Crouch finished the tournament tied for 44th after shooting 6-over-par in the tournament and sophomore Ryan Orr finished the tournament at 12-over-par.
The Gators will return to action in May when they head to one of six NCAA Regional Championship tournaments.
-RYAN SUMMERS
Women’s Golf: The Florida women’s golf team finished the final round of the SEC Tournament 4-over par to bring their team total to 22-over, good for a sixth-place finish.
The late surge from the Gators can be attributed to sophomore Karolina Vlckova. Over the last three tournaments, Vlckova has led the Gators with consecutive top-10 finishes.
On Sunday, Vlckova recorded five birdies to combat a bogey and a double-bogey on hole nine, to give her a team-low score of 2-under-par – moving her from 33 to a tie for 17 in the individual leaderboards. This is her sixth top-25 finish this season and the ninth in her collegiate career.
-JUSTEN ROSENBERG
Softball: This year’s version of the Florida and Georgia softball series has come to an end with only two games being played.
Game 3 of the series was cancelled Sunday because of inclement weather.
No makeup for the game has been announced.
No. 2 Florida (43-4, 13-4 Southeastern Conference) swept a doubleheader from the No. 11 Bulldogs (35-13, 11-9 SEC) on Saturday after Friday’s game was also cancelled because of inclement weather.
Florida senior Lauren Haeger broke the career program record and the SEC record with a grand slam in the top of the first in the opening game of the doubleheader.
It was the 66th home run for the Peoria, Arizona, native as she passed former Gator Megan Bush. Haeger also picked up her 20th win of the season in the game.
Freshman Nicole DeWitt added a grand slam of her own to break a 4-4 tie as the Gators won the opener of the doubleheader 8-4.
UF won the second game 4-3.
Florida returns home to face No. 10 Florida State on Wednesday.
The Gators defeated the Seminoles 5-1 on April 8 in Tallahassee. Senior Bailey Castro hit two home runs in the game and Haeger pitched a complete game with seven strikeouts as she picked up the win.
-LUIS TORRES
Women’s Tennis: The No. 3 Florida women’s tennis team fell to the Vanderbilt Commodores 4-2 in the SEC Tournament Semifinals.
It was Florida’s second conference loss of the season, with the first also coming at the hands of the Commodores.
Florida failed to add the early tally after Vandy’s fast start in doubles.
UF trailed 2-0 after Vanderbilt added the early singles victory to the board.
Coach Roland Thornqvist said he thinks the team played much better doubles from the last time the Gators faced the Commodores.
“They showed a lot of class and ability to be able to close us out. I think [our] team has a lot of improvement to build on and a lot we can achieve in these next three weeks and if I know this group, they’re going to take this the right way and be motivated to become the most improved team from now until we play in the Regionals,” Thornqvist said in a release.
The women’s bracket with the 2015 NCAA Tournament match-ups will be announced Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m.
-ENEISY RODRIGUEZ
Men’s Tennis: The No. 6 seed UF men’s tennis team fell 4-3 to third-seeded Mississippi State on Friday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
Opening up its match on Friday against No. 20 Mississippi State the Gators went out on the right foot after sophomore double duo Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin clinched the doubles point to give Florida a 1-0 lead.
But Mississippi State rallied to win four of the six singles points to knock the Gators out early.
“We had a lot of missed opportunities on our part as we had some game points that we didn’t convert too,” coach Bryan Shelton said in a release. “I’m a little bit frustrated that we didn’t convert better today, as we weren’t as mentally tough as we needed to get the job done.”
UF will now await to see where it’s headed for the NCAA Tournament. The selection will be aired on NCAA.com and begin at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
-CAYLEE UNDERWOOD
J.D. Tomlinson swings during Day 1 of the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 14 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
J.D. Tomlinson swings during Day 1 of the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 14 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
