ASU women's golf came out triumphant in its final competition of the fall season, winning the Pac-12 Preview in Kona, Hawaii on Tuesday.
The Sun Devils shot two-over-par to take first place and proved they can compete with the nations' top teams in the process.
"Winning a tournament of this caliber is fantastic for our team in many ways," head coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. "It helps us to believe we can beat top teams and that we are a top team."
ASU finished the tournament three strokes better than the second-place team UA. Stanford and Oregon followed behind in second and third place respectively, with California and Colorado tying for fifth.
"Beating every team in the Pac-12 is a great accomplishment," Farr-Kaye said. "We are the strongest conference in the country so winning this is fantastic. Arizona has a good team, so going low the last day and winning is what I am most excited about."
ASU had five of their six golfers place in the top 30 of individual play on their way to a victory. The top three finishers for the Sun Devils — senior Monica Vaughn, junior Sophia Zeeb, and sophomore Linnea Strom — all tied for ninth.
YAAAAASSSSS GOT THAT DUB!!! pic.twitter.com/etgkG3Tapv
— Monica Vaughn (@Mvaughn13) October 25, 2016
"Each player knows that the better they play, the better they make the team," Farr-Kaye said. "Each of them are very supportive of each other. They are really focused on the team which is great."
As for the rest of the ASU women golfers, freshman Olivia Mehaffey tied for 13th place, sophomore Madison Kerley tied for 26th, and junior Roberta Liti tied for 32nd place.
The Sun Devils wanted to make sure to close out this tournament with a strong finish, unlike their showing at the last tournament in the Stanford Intercollegiate.
"We missed top three by two shots because we stumbled coming in," Farr-Kaye said. "This team did not want to let that happen again."
Winning the Pac-12 Preview was a big feat for every member of the team, but winning it on Oct. 25, after being only one year removed from the ESPNW's article on Farr-Kaye's late sister, Heather Farr who was a LPGA Tour member that passed way from breast cancer in 1993 at the early age of 28 made the victory that much more special.
Farr-Kaye is also a two-time breast cancer survivor and understands what type of weight this diseases carriers.
"We honor breast cancer survivors and the loved ones we have lost in October by putting pink ribbons on our golf bags," Farr-Kaye said, "This is always a tough month for me because you never get over losing your sister to breast cancer. You just learn to live with it."
ASU women's golf has a substantial layoff until they pick back up with tournaments in February. Farr-Kaye is looking forward to this extended amount of time to rest up and work on some things that will help her ladies in the future.
"This is the time of the year when we work through things," Farr-Kaye said. "Such as fine tuning our equipment and working on getting stronger and more fit. Catch up on school and take a little time off. Our season is very long and I feel it is imperative that they take some time off."
ASU will play their first tournament of the spring season from Feb. 12-14 in Palos Verde, California for the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge.
Following that event, the Sun Devils will essentially have a tournament every week from March through May, when the team hopes to compete for a National Championship.
"This group is hungry, and I am confident that they will come back in January ready to compete hard in the spring," Farr-Kaye said.
Reach the reporter at thandlan@asu.edu or follow @Tyler_Handlan on Twitter.
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