The No. 77 Long Beach State women’s golf team wrapped up a second-place finish on Tuesday in the Big West Championships at the San Luis Obispo Country Club.
The 49ers played well the entire tournament after shooting 55-over par with rounds of 307, 304 and 308.
Coming in with high expectations, the 49ers looked to defend their Big West title at the exact same course they won it on last year.
LBSU’s top individual performer was freshman Simone Hoey, who finished in third place after a final round of 73. Hoey posted an eight-over-par tournament score and missed the playoff by one stroke.
She fired rounds of 77 and 75 heading into the final day and collected eight birdies in the tournament. The freshman did not have to three-putt a single hole in the third round.
“Our players had the right frame of mind,” LBSU head coach Joey Cerulle said. “They were loose, relaxed and ready to go.”
No. 33 UC Davis and No. 45 UC Irvine figured to provide the stiffest competition at the seven-team tournament and that was exactly the case.
UCD fired off a 36-over-par tournament score to capture the team championship and nab the Big West’s NCAA automatic bid. The Aggies kept the lead all three days with rounds of 298, 299 and 303.
UCI fired a final round 303 to finish six shots behind The Beach.
“UC Davis won the tournament in the first round,” Cerulle said.
In individual play, Davis captured four out of the top five spots, with Chelsea Stelzmiller beating teammate Amy Simanton after three holes of sudden death to give the Aggies the top two individual finishes.
UCD also captured fourth place with Demi Runas finishing at 10-over, and fifth place with Alice Kim carding an 11-over-par score.
“It was tough to catch up because of Davis’s great play, but we told ourselves ‘let’s go clinch second’ and that’s what we did,” Cerulle said.
Junior Reina Rogers played terrific all three days and was one shot behind the leader going into the final round, but made four double bogeys in the final round to fall to sixth place. Rogers shot rounds of 75, 73 and 82 to finish at 14-over par.
She made her first eagle on the par-5 10th hole on the second day and sank five birdies in her three rounds.
Sophomore Noelle Zavaleta shot rounds of 77, 74 and 81 to finish tied for ninth place at 16-over par.
Zavaleta was in contention through the first two rounds, but slipped up on the last round. She made 15 pars in a row in round two and had three birdies for the tournament.
Junior Lindsey McAtee tied for 15th, shooting an overall 21-over-par score after registering rounds of 81, 82 and 74. McAtee climbed the leaderboard and finished strong to post a two-over final round.
Sophomore Monica Villarreal carded rounds of 78, 82 and 80 to finish at 24-over, good for 23rd place.
LBSU will now wait to see if it will receive an NCAA at-large bid to extend its season. If not, then the squad will have to wait until 2011 to make its run.
Cerulle said, “We are hoping that we can get a get ranking by the raters. We came in second place and we finished ahead of the 41st team in the nation.”
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