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Concolino Wins Again As ‘Dores Sizzle 3/5/2006
BATON ROUGE– Jacqui Concolino and Chris Brady were spectacular Sunday as Vanderbilt equaled its school record round at the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic and jumped into a third place finish as a result. Concolino captured her second consecutive medalist title, shooting five-under 67 to edge LSU’s Melissa Eaton by a shot at six-under par 210. Concolino began on hole 3 in the shotgun start and notched three birdies against her lone bogey of the day. She was brilliant on the backside, shooting three-under 33 with birds on the 11th, 14th and 15th. She finished her round on the first two holes of the LSU University Club’s Cleveland Course with pars. “Winning today feels much better today because our team had an awesome day,” Concolino says. “I was hitting my irons on the green all day, just like yesterday, and it seems as though I could have been much lower than I was. It felt like I wasn’t making putts even though I was because I was hitting it so close. I thought I drove it better in Tucson but my irons were solid here and my distance control was good.” The Orlando freshman becomes the first Vanderbilt women’s golfer to win back-to-back tournaments and her two victories equals the Brady’s program record for wins in a season. Concolino was nine-under par at Arizona and is now 15-under over her last six competitive rounds. The Commodores’ 1-2 punch of Concolino and Brady had everyone buzzing. Brady was this event’s defending champion and she refused to go quietly into the night. The pre-season All-American shot 66, equaling this tournament’s best round, and leaped from a 24th place tie beginning the day into sole possession of fourth place at even par. She said a morning talk with her mother, former Vanderbilt All-American Peggy Harmon Brady, helped. “My mom told me I had good karma today because my grandmother is an LSU alum, which was something I did not know,” Brady said. “I stayed in the moment and I wanted some revenge on this course,” Brady continued. “I know how to play this course and this was really my first chance at it. Yesterday I had it going and then I strayed from my game plan and during the first day I was too timid. Today I finally got it right and could have shot a lot lower – I missed birdie putts on 18-1 and 3.” Brady chipped in for eagle on 17 and reached two of par 5’s in 2. She hit all 18 greens. The pair’s torrid day took the spotlight from a superb even par effort by Kristen Svicarovich and solid afternoons by both Liebelei Lawrence, who shot 74, and Amber Lundskog, who came in at 78. Vanderbilt Coach Martha Richards Freitag, who yesterday suggested her team has an explosive nature to it, was pleased but far from surprised. “I have always felt that we can go low on this course and to see them do it was great,” Freitag said. “This round was something we’ve been waiting to happen. It was exciting to have a round like this and it should give us momentum for the rest of the spring. We now go on spring break for the week and should come back refreshed and ready to go.” Auburn won the team title at nine-over par with host LSU two shots back and the Commodores at plus-14. At one time during the exciting day Vanderbilt had trimmed Auburn’s huge lead to a mere four strokes. Vanderbilt’s 279 tied its own record established last fall in the Mason Rudolph Championship. * Vanderbilt’s 279 score is the lowest ever shot in a college tournament at the U-Club. Duke shot 280 in the 2002 NCAA Regionals |
Concolino Wins Again As ‘Dores Sizzle
