BATON ROUGE, La. — Vanderbilt nearly pulled out a come-from-behind victory Sunday at the LSU Invitational only to fall just short.
The Commodores held the lead for much of the day and their 291 team score was the lowest of the field. But Illinois held on down the stretch to win at 12-over-par while Vandy was two shots back.
“It was a challenging day out there today,” Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh said. “We knew going in that it would be tough and we knew we had to embrace it. I’m proud of the fight and toughness we played with.”
After starting the day tied for third in the 15-team field, Vanderbilt began to string birdies together early and often Sunday. Through nine holes the Commodores were 4-under-par as a team and just two shots back of both South Carolina and Florida.
On the course’s back nine, which played tough all weekend, Vandy and Illinois went back-and-forth atop the leaderboard before the two were tied at 12-over-par with three holes to go.
Matthew Riedel, a sophomore, recorded the best finish of his young career with a 2-under-par for the tournament. He came in second after a 4-under-par day Sunday and ended up three shots back of tournament champion Jackson Suber of Ole Miss.
Riedel carded four birdies during his final 18 and eagled the par 4 10th.
“Obviously, Matthew played an awesome round and looked comfortable out there all day,” Limbaugh said. “We had it going on the front nine as William did a great job setting the tone for the day. It was really a team effort this week and one that I think will help us understand what it takes when things get hard.
“It’s fun to be in the heat down the stretch and get those feels and learn how to focus on the right things – great opportunity to learn the value of a shot and to fight for each and every one. You never want to waste an opportunity like this. Illinois made some shots down the stretch and so did our guys. They made a couple more than we did.”
William Moll wound up tied for 21st with a 6-over-par thanks to a 71 on Sunday. Cole Sherwood (+7) finished tied for 24th while Reid Davenport and Harrison Ott each finished in a tie for 38th at 9-over-par.
Playing as an individual, Jansen Preston (+21) tied for 81st.
“We have been saying we need people to step up and we had some of that this week I thought. Really all of them stepped up at one time or another,” Limbaugh said. “I thought we had a few mental lapses again today where we kind of lost focus, but all things we can correct going forward. I like this team a lot and while it wasn’t quite the finish we hoped for today, it was a good step for us.
“Now how the team responds to this week will say a lot about our leadership and the kind of team we can become.”
