Kyra Van Kan barely made it off the green on hole No. 17 before her team enveloped her in a wave of hugs and cheers.
Van Kan sank the championship-winning put, delivering Tennessee women’s golf its first SEC title in program history on April 21 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
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The SEC final against No. 4 seed Auburn couldn’t have been much closer. The No. 6 seed Lady Vols won two matches by a wide margin, with Sophie Christopher and Sofie Engesaeth winning their matches 6 & 5. But the Tigers also won two matches to tie it 2-2, and it all came down to Van Kan, who was up two going into hole No. 16.
Van Kan then lost hole No. 16, but recovered on hole No. 17 to seal the championship for Tennessee.
“I think you can just see what it means to us. We’re all super emotional, because I don’t think people realize what hard work goes into this,” Van Kan said on SEC Network. “It really just means the world, because this is our lives, like we live, eat, sleep, golf. We train and work really hard all for this moment. So yeah, I’m really, really ecstatic right now.”
After the initial elation of the win, Tennessee coach Diana Cantú huddled her team together, getting emotional as she soaked in the moment with them.
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“You made history,” Cantú said. “I’m so proud of you. You deserve it, you earned it today. And your fight – you gave it your all. Gave it your all. I love you guys so much. This is amazing. I love you guys. Thank you.”
Engesaeth was the only other golfer besides Van Kan who won all three of her matches, and Engesaeth’s semifinal win sent the Lady Vols to the championship.
Engesaeth fell behind on hole No. 17, but holed a 10-foot birdie putt on hole No. 18 to tie her match, which tied the teams at 2.5 points each. Engesaeth then won the tiebreaker hole for Tennessee’s first appearance in the SEC final since the league switched to match play format.
Christopher came up huge for the Lady Vols in the championship, winning the first point of the day after losing her other two matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
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“This group right here will never happen again. We had three months to give everything we had to make history, to leave this place better than they found it, and to do it for each other,” Cantú said on SEC Network. “And gosh, I can’t be more proud. I’m so emotional.”
Tennessee reached the SEC finals in 1993, 1996 and 2006 before the switch to match play format. Tennessee only made it into match play by two shots as the No. 6 seed. The Lady Vols beat No. 3 seed Oklahoma 4-1 in the quarterfinals and No. 7 seed Texas A&M 3-2 in the semifinals.
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee golf team wins historic SEC championship
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