No. 15 ASU women's golf team looked to add to its early season resume this week at the Bruin Wave Invitational in San Luis Obispo, California.
This is the second tournament of the season for the Sun Devil squad coming off a seventh-place finish highlighted by a remarkable final day climb up the leaderboard by junior Monica Vaughn to take individual honors.
Vaughn won the last one, but a different ASU golfer was fighting her way to the top of the leaderboard over the three-day stretch: sophomore Sophia Zeeb.
On day one, Zeeb hit a team-best two-under, placing her in a tie for fourth overall. This round of 70 tied her best collegiate round.
Zeeb's first round score of 70 (-2) is tied for her best collegiate round of golf, she was sitting just one stroke behind the lead. In the second round, she shot a 72 and was only one shot behind the leader. She went into her final round strong, scoring what would have been a third-place finish.
However, according to thesundevils.com, she signed the wrong scorecard, voiding her final round score and disqualifying her.
Despite this, ASU managed to place second overall, behind just UCLA. The Sun Devils had lagged just behind the Bruins throughout the entire tournament; at the end of the first round, they were only four strokes behind after posting a +1.
Four of ASU's five players were within seven shots of the lead after the round. Freshman Linnea Strom sat at +4 after day one, Vaughn was at +3, freshman Madison Kerley sat even (E) Zeeb shooting a team low of -2.
At the end of the first round the players were given a brief period to rest before they were sent back out to play their second half of their 36-hole day.
ASU wasted very little time picking up ground on the Bruins, collectively playing the front nine in one over par (+1) and the back nine in four over (+4). The Sun Devils finished their second round with a team score of 293 (+5 for the day).
As Leap Day ended, ASU had posted a two-round score of 586 (+10). They were alone in second place, trailing only UCLA, which had a 576 (even for the tournament).
The team hung there through day three despite Zeeb's disqualification. Vaugh and Strom each scored 219, placing them in a tie for ninth, and Kerley finished with 220, placing her in a tie for 12th.
Overall, Kerley placed inside the top-25 in par-three and par-four scoring as well as total pars and total birdies.
The team, similar to their first tournament of the season, showed consistency in a vast variety of areas and continue to trend upwards as the season progresses.
Reach the reporter at Braxton.Fox@asu.edu or follow @braxton_fox_II on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
