Senior Noemi Jimenez tees off at the 2015 Clover Cup on Friday March 13, 2015 at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)The ASU women’s golf team took home its first title of the season at the Clover Cup in Mesa on Sunday. Sophomore Monica Vaughn led for most of the tournament but finished in second on the individual leaderboard.
The team finished 21-over par, 12 strokes ahead of the host team Notre Dame in second place. The Sun Devils shot a 7-over 295 in each round to win the team title.
“It feels great to get a win,” ASU head coach Melissa Luellen said in a release. “It was the picture of consistency with the same score every single day. It doesn’t happen very often.”
Luellen said that while the team did not start off strong on the final day with the lead, the comeback in the back nine shows the strength of the team.
“Everyone kind of started off a little bit rocky today—our front nine wasn’t very strong,” she said. “But we really just hung in there and kept fighting and started dropping some birdies. We played really well on the back nine and were able to pull away.”
For the individual title, Oklahoma’s Hannah Wood edged out Vaughn by two strokes. Vaughn finished in second place with a season best score 5-under 211.
“Monica has been playing so well,” Luellen said. “She’s been working hard and working on the right things. She’s staying really positive and working on keeping her emotions under control. It was a really good experience for her to be in contention and have a chance to win. She had a really solid performance—it was a great tournament for her.”
Senior Noemi Jimenez tied her best finish of the season shooting a 5-over 221 finishing tied for fifth place. It was the third top-five finish of the season for Jimenez and the second straight after finishing in the same spot at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.
Freshmen Sophia Zeeb and Roberta Liti both performed well and finished in the top-20. Zeeb finished in 13th with a 9-over 225 and Liti finished 18th with a 12-over 228.
“I was really proud of our freshmen today,” said Luellen. “They really just dug in and finished strong.”
Rounding out the lineup for ASU was sophomore Saki Iida who carded her best score of the season with a 13-over 243 and finished in 71st place.
The team had two golfers competing individually, both finished in the top-40. Freshman Ashleigh Greenham finished at a 2-over 230 placing in 29th place while senior Emilie Alonso carded a 5-over 233 for 39th place.
Next on the schedule for the women’s golf team is hosting Denver on Friday March 20 before a quick turnaround heading to San Diego for the SDSU Invitational on March 23.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or follow @bill_slane on Twitter.
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