UVA Golfers Open Spring at FSU Match-Up

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Feb. 11, 2016

Charlottesville, Va. – The 19th-ranked Virginia women’s golf team opens the spring portion of its schedule this weekend at the fourth annual Florida State Match-Up Tournament at the Don Veller Seminole Golf Course and Club in Tallahassee, Feb. 12-14.

The event is the most unique event in all of college golf as the 12 teams and 68 individuals play in pairs for a Match-Up championship, a team championship and an individual title.

When the invitations were sent out, six teams were initially invited to Tallahassee to play in the event. Those six teams were then able to contact a team of their choice to partner with for the tournament. The team partnerships this year consist of head coaches partnering up with the former assistant coaches who are now coaching their own programs, former college teammates, rivals, friends, and teams that have fun together. The goal of the tournament is to get the spring season kicked off with some fun and friendly competition.

The 12 teams will tee off in twosomes for the first two rounds and then in a final round shotgun in threesomes. The twosomes will consist of the partner teams playing together and for this year the partners are as follows: Florida State/Texas A&M, South Carolina/Virginia, Furman/Coastal Carolina, SMU/Kansas State, Missouri/Tennessee and Virginia Tech/James Madison.

The Cavaliers and Lady Gamecocks tee off starting at 10:06 a.m. from the No. 10 tee.

The match-up portion of the tournament will be determined by taking the best four scores from the partners (which is a total of 10 players) and the worst score to make the match up total. At the end of the tournament, the teams with the lowest score will win the match up. There will also be an individual champion along with a team champion crowned.

The Virginia lineup includes Lauren Coughlin (Chesapeake, Va.), Elizabeth Szokol (Winnetka, Ill.) and Morgan Gonzales (Chandler, Ariz), Lyberty Anderson (Chesterfield, Va.) and Katharine Patrick (Houston, Texas). Lauren Diaz-Yi (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and Anna Redding (Concord, N.C.) will compete as individuals.

Coughlin leads the team with a 72.08 stroke average that finds her ranked No. 28 in the Golfstat individual rankings.

Last year the Cavaliers tied for second at the event, shooting 19-over 883. Szokol led the Cavaliers with a fifth-place finish. She shot even par 72 during the final round to finish the 54-hole event at 1-over 217. Coughlin was 14th overall at 220.

Live scoring of the tournament will be online at Golfstat.com.