The Tennessee Lady Volunteer golf team ended their fall season in an unfortunate way on Sunday at the Landfall Tradition, finishing 13th in the tournament, their lowest finish of the season thus far. The team shot a combined +21 in the three-day tournament, compared to even par by eventual tournament champion Wake Forest.
The Lady Vols started off the first day in the middle of the pack in a four-way tie for eighth place.
Great play and leadership by A.J. Newell proved to be the difference maker on day one, as the senior was third place with a score of 68 (-4). Lucia Polo was +1, Anna Newell was +2, Mason Chen was +5, and Hannah Pietila was +7 after the first day of play. Purdue had the overall lead at -5, while Tennessee had a combined score of +4.
“A.J. played awesome and really kept us in the tournament,” head coach Judi Pavon stated. “We made a couple mistakes that kept us from having a really good round, so we are hoping to clean those up tomorrow (on the second day).”
The second day of play seemed to be much of the same for the Lady Vols.
Polo and Anna Newell lead the team in scoring on the day two of the tournament, both shooting even par. A.J. Newell shot +1, which dropped her into a tie for fourth at -3 for the tournament. Other second day finishes showed Pietila shooting +5, and Chen shooting +6.
Oklahoma State and Wake Forest snuck in to take the lead from Purdue on the second day, both having a combined score of -1. The Lady Vols slipped down the leaderboard to 10th with a score of +8.
The third day proved to be the biggest obstacle for the Lady Vols in the entire tournament, as none of the Lady Vols finished at or under par on the final day. The top score came from AJ Newell, who shot +2, with her sister Anna behind her at +3. Polo and Pietila finished their final day at +4, and Mason Chen finished +6 to close out the Lady Vols round.
“I’m not totally sure what happened today (the third day),” Pavon said. “We got off to a good start, but the wind picked up on the back 9, and we made mistakes on some of the easier holes. I think we probably tried to make some birdies happen and ended up with bogeys when pars would have been just fine.”
A.J. Newell proved that she has the skills to lead her team in this tournament. Newell finished the tournament tied for 8th at -1. She finished third-best in the tournament on the course’s par-4’s, as she shot -1 on such holes.
Newell’s impressive fall has not gone unnoticed, as Newell moved up to the 53rd ranked collegiate women’s golfer in the country on golfweekrankings.com. Out of the five tournaments played this year by the Lady Vols, Newell has finished in the top eight in three of the five tournaments: 4th in the Cardinal Kickoff, T-2nd in the GolfWeek Challenge, and now T-8th in the Landfall Tradition.
“A.J. has had a great fall season and had a great tournament this week,” Pavon said. “I think she will go into the spring season excited to play and with a lot of confidence.”
Lucia Polo and Anna Newell finished T-32nd in this tournament at +5. Polo finished tied for the fourth-most birdies in the tournament with 11. Hannah Pietila finished T-74th at +14, and Mason Chen finished T-85th at +17.
Although the Lady Vols fall season didn’t end quite like they would have wanted, Pavon is proud of her team, and feels that the team needs to begin focusing on the spring now.
“We need to stay healthy for sure and keep gaining confidence,” Pavon said. “I believe this team can compete with anybody, and we need to have that confidence week after week.
“I think the team feels really good about the fall, but knows they could be even better. That’s a good feeling to have when good players want to work hard to improve.”
The Lady Vols do have at least one positive lining heading into the spring. After not being ranked in the top 50 by golfweekrankings.com in the preseason, the Lady Vols grit and determination has lifted them up to 13th in the nation.
The Lady Vols’ spring season begins on Feb. 22, 2015 at the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Arizona.
