Sophomore Saki Iida 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 Sun Devil women’s golf team kept the momentum going on Friday with a win over the University of Denver Pioneers in a single round dual in Tempe at Karsten Golf Course.
The Sun Devils topped the Pioneers by 15 strokes on Friday finishing at 3-under 285 to Denver’s 12-over 300. Three Sun Devils shared the top spot as individual winners in the dual.
Freshmen Sophia Zeeb and Roberta Liti along with sophomore Monica Vaughn all finished the round at 1-under par for the best score of the day. The 71 score ties a season best for Liti. She has now carded that score four times as a Sun Devil, and it's is a new season best for Zeeb who shot under par in a round for the first time in her career as a Sun Devil.
Vaughn’s score does not tie a season best but she has carded 1-under seven times now this season, including twice during last weekend’s Clover Cup. Her season and career best came at the Pac-12 Preview in November when she carded an impressive score of 67 in the final round.
Senior Noemi Jimenez was the next Sun Devil on the leaderboard tying for fourth place with an even 72 for the round.
The final member of the team competing not as an individual was freshman Ashleigh Greenham who finished tied for ninth on the leaderboard carding a 3-over 75. She was just one stroke over her season best of 74, which she has carded twice so far this season.
Competing as individuals not counting to the team score were senior Emilie Alonso and sophomore Saki Iida. Alonso finished tied with Greenham at 3-over 75, Iida carded a 4-over 76, which ties her season best that she scored twice at the Stanford Intercollegiate in October.
Winning on their home course was to be expected in a single round dual but winning by 15 strokes is nothing to look past. The team was in need to keep the momentum of their Clover Cup win going and they did just that by taking care of business on Friday in on their home turf.
The team will need as much momentum as it can get as ASU heads to Rancho Santa Fe, California for the SDSU Farms Invitational. The Sun Devils finished fourth in the event last year with a 17-over 881. Jimenez finished tied for fifth with a 1-over 217 as the highest ranked individual Sun Devil.
The field for this year’s event has not yet been posted on Golfstat, however, last year’s field did include teams currently in the top-10 including No. 2 USC and No. 4 UCLA in Golfweek’s rankings.
So while in the long run winning or losing against the University of Denver Pioneers wasn’t a make it or break it result for the team, keeping the momentum going into what will likely be the team’s most difficult tournament so far this spring was critical.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or follow @bill_slane on Twitter.
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