No. 4 ASU women's golf finished fourth (17-over 881) at the SDSU Farms Invitational in San Diego Wednesday. USC (3-under 861) won the tournament behind a tournament-best score from freshman Karen Chung (8-under 208).
Junior Noemi Jimenez led the way for the Sun Devils with a 1-over par score of 217. Senior Justine Lee (3-over 219), junior Emilie Alonso (4-over 220), senior Daniela Ordonez (12-over 228) and freshman Monica Vaughn (13-over 229) rounded out the Sun Devil squad.
When asked about her thoughts on her team's play, coach Melissa Luellen mentioned the struggles in the final round.
"Well, we finished fourth," Luellen said. "We were tied for third place at the end of the second round, but we didn't play well enough in the third round and fell to fourth."
The Sun Devils shot 7-over par as a team in the first round, but followed that up with a 4-under second day. As for the third round, every Sun Devil shot over par and the team finished 14-over on the day.
The Invitational included a very strong field of teams with six nationally ranked teams, including ASU, of the 17 that competed.
ASU has been a strong team all season, finishing outside the top 10 only once. The Sun Devils have two second-place finishes, two third-place finishes and two fourth-place finishes on the year.
With postseason play beginning April 25, Luellen says her team isn't right where she wants them to be, but she's not worrying.
"We're still a good month away from the postseason and we're not quite there yet," said Luellen. "There's a lot of maturity on this team, they know how it works. No one is panicking or freaking out. We are learning from this tournament and applying what we learned to the next one."
Perhaps the best news for the Sun Devils is that they will host their next tournament, the Ping/ASU Invitational, which runs from April 4 to April 6.
Luellen says she and her team look forward to playing at the ASU Karsten Golf Course.
"We love playing at home; it's the only tournament we get to play at home all season, and we like playing on our own course," Luellen said. "The girls also get to sleep in their own beds; it's very nice not having to travel."
The three-day home stand for the Sun Devils will be the last regular season tournament before they travel to Corvallis, Ore., to play in the Pac-12 Women's Championships.
Reach the reporter at hkossodo@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @HKossodo
