NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt truly believes it is peaking at the right time.
Unique circumstances and a tough schedule made for a rocky regular season for the Commodores, but they go into this week’s SEC Championship event full of confidence and strengthened chemistry.
“There’s been a lot of challenges and it’s been easier said than done to get out there and grind every day given the circumstances that are really different,” Vanderbilt senior Louise Yu said. “I think a lot of us used the fall semester to get comfortable with COVID-19 and classwork and everything.
“We haven’t seen the best results this year, but it’s better late than never.”
Vandy is coming off a second-place finish at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic and will take the same quintet (Lu, Celina Sattelkau, Auston Kim, Tess Davenport and Morgan Baxendale) from that event to the Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Virginie Ding will also be available as a possible substitution.
The Dores will begin the tournament Wednesday and be paired with Florida and Alabama – the same two squads they took the course with in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before getting off to a blazing start.
“I feel like we’re prepared, I feel like we’re confident, I feel like we’re starting to jell,” Vanderbilt head coach Greg Allen. “I feel like we’re starting to come together and that’s what you want. You want to start peaking in April and May for the postseason.”
Vanderbilt’s second-place result at LSU was its best of the season. It also had a fourth-place showing in November and third-place fending in February. The lack of top results was partly due to junior Auston Kim not joining the team until the spring season – he opted out during the fall – and the team not being able to practice together (due to COVID-19) issues as a full unit until late February.
But Sattelkau has remained consistent through most of the year with five top-11 finishes. Kim recently played at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and was in contention during the final round. Yu came in fourth overall at LSU.
The Commodores have proven that in everyone in their lineup plays their best they can compete with any team in the league.
“I got a feeling like I had back in the 18-19 season when we won six tournaments – including the regionals – and I feel that way again. It’s a confident feel,” Allen said. “We just want a Saturday tee time. LSU and South Carolina have proven that they’re head and shoulders above in stroke play, but all we want is a Saturday tee time in match play because we know anything can happen then.”
Vanderbilt is scheduled to tee off at 8 a.m. Wednesday – the squad played a practice round at Greystone on Tuesday. The Dores will try to conquer the Legacy Course which plays at a par of 72 over 6,253 yards.
Vandy last won the SEC team championship in 2014. Sunday’s final round will be televised live by the SEC Network.
“SECs is definitely one of the tournaments that we look forward to in the year and I think we’ve definitely prepared well for it,” Yu said. “We have really good momentum going into this. Coming off a great finish on a tough course (at LSU) definitely gives us confidence going into another challenging course.
“Bringing the same lineup it will give us that good chemistry. I think we’ll just take it day-to-day and take it one step at a time and just be grateful that we’re there.”