ASU women’s golf opened its season with a third-place finish in the Golfweek Conference Championship, 19-over-par.
The tournament also featured TCU, San Diego State, Florida International and Mississippi.
The Sun Devils started junior Monica Vaughn, sophomore Sophia Zeeb, sophomore Roberta Liti, freshman Linnea Strom and freshman Madison Kerley in the competition.
In their first pairing of the day, the three faced off against Campbell and Wichita State and hit a respectable 11-over-par in their first outing.
The individual players themselves were hitting solid Monday as well: Kerley hit 1-over-par and both Zeeb and Vaughn hit three-over-par.
Liti herself struggled on the first day, hitting six-over-par but the team was still tied for fourth place with Campbell and was only a few strokes behind at the time third place Denver and second place San Diego State.
The Sun Devils went into day two ready for a big jump on the leaderboard but found themselves struggling to move, hitting 17-over-par and finished the day tied for fifth place with Memphis and eight strokes behind fourth place Campbell.
ASU was paired with Campbell and Wichita State again. In that round, Vaughn had another solid day, hititing 1-over-par and Strom hit 3-over-par but no one else did better than 6-over-par. With those numbers, the Sun Devils needed a big day three and a bit of luck to get back in the fight for the win.
They got exactly what they needed, right from the get go, the team looked a lot better and they were able to take third place, hopping over Campbell and Memphis, which were the two teams they were paired up against.
Vaughn finished her run with an excellent 5-under-par in the third round with shot her up to be tied for second place individually with TCU junior Kelly McGovern. Zeeb and Kerley also were under par, Strom (4-over-par) and Liti (1-over-par) hit well, equaling out to 9-under-par on the day and 19-over-par on the tournament.
The Sun Devils' 9-under-par score was the second best on the night but wasn’t enough for them to close the gap between them and first place San Diego State, who shot 10-under-par for the third day and 6-under-par for the tournament, or to second place TCU, who shot 2-over-par for the day but 14-over-par on the tournament.
ASU will compete in the Windy City Classic in Wilmette, Illinois, from Oct. 5-6
Related Link:
Men's, women's golf team will rely on mix of experience and youth
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
