The ASU women’s golf team finished its west coast road trip in disappointment.
The Sun Devils finished 11th at the Battle at the Rancho Bernado Inn in California, behind six schools that were ranked behind them in what was the team’s third tournament in the last eight days.
No. 9 ASU played a solid first round and finished within striking distance, four strokes behind the leader. However, four of the five ASU competitors had their worst round on the second day of competition, leading to a devastating 28-over-par 316. From that point they weren’t able to recover.
In that pivotal second round, ASU coach Melissa Luellen said it seemed to her that fatigue had started to take effect, and with the addition of terrible weather, the team wasn’t able to respond.
“We just hit a wall,” Luellen said. “The level of exhaustion kind of hit them because they had a hard time fighting in the weather. The mental part of the game really broke down.”
One bright spot for the team was junior Giulia Molinaro, who stormed out of the gate to take the lead after the first round with a 3-under-par 69. She was coming off her first victory of the season at the Paradise Classic on March 16.
Molinaro and the individual winner Laura Gonzalez, from Purdue, were the only two competitors to shoot a sub-70 round in the tournament. She eventually fell back and finished tied for fourth after shooting a 4-over-par 76 in her second round.
“Giulia is playing with a lot of confidence,” Luellen said. “The first day she had a good day and then the next couple of day she didn’t really make any putts.”
Molinaro was the only ASU player to finish in the top-30. Four freshmen competed for the team alongside Molinaro, and both Justine Lee and Laura Blanco were able to scrape together top-50 finishes as they placed tied for 31st and tied for 47th, respectively.
The team was also missing their leader, junior Carlota Ciganda, because of what Luellen said was a case of Mononucleosis. The team also went without Nicole Jones due to an illness.
Luellen is still unsure if the team will have Ciganda back for its next match, which is the PING/ASU Invitational at home in Tempe, starting April 1.
“We are excited to be at home right now,” Luellen said. “That’s probably the biggest positive right now, is that we are going to be at home and be able to get our feet under us, get rested and get healthy.”
ASU will be looking to rebound with its home tournament and get ready for hosting the conference championship from April 17-19.
“We had a bad tournament,” Luellen said. “By the time the postseason rolls around we will be ready.”
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
