Maybe the site had age and someone bought it when it dropped off? I get what you are saying though but it doesn't always make sense these days! Whatever they did obviously works because their name showed up in the results and it was related to what you were searching for.

Domain names don't matter as much as quality of content. Exact match domains are good for the short term and for keywords with little competition, but in the long haul the sites with both age (site age, not only domain age) and good content will win out.

I figured they bought the domain with age. But it is under 4 years and that doesn't seem that old to me. It is a copy of another site that ranks well in this basic category. Just seemed odd. Time to work on more content! Thanks everyone.

For a well made content rich website, the domain name has very little impact on the search engine rankings. Google ranks web pages, not domain names. There are many other benefits to using a relevant keyword rich domain name though. Recognition, memorable, brand creation, better click through rates (people searching for fuzzy yellow slippers will more readily click on FuzzyYellowSlippers.com before something not descriptive), and more.

Domain name hasn't been a significant factor in ranking for some time now. Google removed the automatic boost that exact match domains had awhile ago. If an exact match domain ranks now, it's due to the content, not the domain name.

Deconstructing The Google EMD Update

Google Warns of Upcoming Exact Match Domain Algorithm Change - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

Google Drops "Low Quality" Exact Match Domains From Search Results

The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs | SEOmoz

it depends on what anchor text they used in the backlinks