MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – Charleston Southern senior Shelby Thompson claimed runner-up honors to lead the Bucs to a third-place finish at Rivertowne Country Club's CSU Invitational on Tuesday. CSU's final round one-over par 289 allowed it to challenge eventual champion College of Charleston for the title, and ranks as the lowest in head coach Matt Cram-Smith's tenure and one of the best in program history.
College of Charleston's Laura Fuenfstueck (71-72-70-213 (-3)) rallied to best Thompson (72-70-72 (-2)) and help the Cougars pull away from Georgia Southern and CSU for their second straight victory in the event. Trailing by three with six holes to play, Fuenfstueck notched birdies at 13, 14 and 16 to whittle her deficit to a stroke. Playing into the wind at the difficult par-3 17th, Fuenfstueck then surged ahead with a par when Thompson double bogeyed.
The Cougars finished at +5 869 to top Georgia Southern by two strokes and CSU by ten. The Bucs finished 23 shots ahead of Big South rivals High Point and Presbyterian and 27 clear of Longwood.
Thompson's sterling run propelled CSU to within three shots of the lead near the halfway point of the final round. The 2014 CSU Invitational champion entered the final 18 up by a stroke and grew that advantage to five by the turn. Thompson birdied both par-3's on the front nine and sprinkled in birdies on 1 and 8 to go as low as 6-under par.
"My mental game improved and that was a key part," Thompson said. "It was just a fun round. My putting was there and everything with my game was there so it's fun when that happens. I was hitting greens, hitting fairways and hitting putts. I think it's a good start to a great season for us. There's a lot more to come from this tournament and we can all improve.
Junior Hayley McNeill rolled home birdies at 5, 6 and 7 and dropped in another on the tenth to help the Bucs reach 7-under as a team during one point in the round. McNeill (76-74-70-220 (+4)) finished tied for seventh along with Milleina Ohara (74-73-73-220 (+4)), who also entered red numbers. Senior Hannah Barger added a final round score of two-over par to give Cram-Smith's club an excellent showing to build on going forward.
"They played unbelievable," Cram-Smith said. "The girls just had it going. Hayley and Shelby got under par early, Hannah was under par. Everybody just did a good job of not giving up, not getting ahead of themselves and just competing."
"It's been a long time coming, a score like this," Cram-Smith continued. "That's what I've been expecting from them for a long time, since we put this team together. There's so much talent. They hit it as good as anybody out there. It just comes down to getting the ball in the hall, occasionally, and they were able to do that today."
CSU returns to competition on Sept. 26 at the East Carolina Lady Pirate Invitational in Greenville, N.C.
