The members of the Seattle University women’s golf team saved their best round of the Western Athletic Conference Championship for last, cutting three strokes off their previous team low during the third round of the tournament held at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Ariz.
Clare Sorensen (Roseville, Calif.) finished the championship as the highest-ranked Redhawk, placing 10th after taking 224 strokes (+8) throughout the tournament. In Wednesday’s final round, Sorensen saw an exciting first half, taking four bogeys and one birdie over her starting nine holes. She settled down in the second nine, counting just one bogey and eight pars to finish the day at 4-over-par 76. Over the three-day tournament she tallied 35 pars, one off the tournament lead.
Three strokes back, Lori Pearson (Seattle, Wash.) finished off her collegiate career with a top-15 finish by counting 227 strokes (+11) over three rounds. She carded a 5-over-par 77 Wednesday, making two birdies and seven bogeys during the round to finish in a three-way tie for 12th. Also shooting 5-over 77 Wednesday, Nicole Gaddie (Salt Lake City, Utah) held steady in a tie for 21st. Like Pearson, Gaddie tallied two birdies, seven bogeys, and nine pars on the day and finished the tournament with a total of 231 strokes, 15 strokes above par.
Shannon Quinn (Shoreline, Wash.) saw a tremendous finish to her collegiate golfing career by carding a score of 73 (+1), the best individual round of the tournament for any SU player. Quinn made the turn at 3-over-par 39 and sat at four over with three holes left to play. Quinn then birdied her last three holes, doubling her daily birdie count and moving her up to a score of 1-over for the round. She finished with a tournament tally of 18-over-par 234 and placed 27th.
Rounding out the Seattle U lineup, Amanda Beyke (Federal Way, Wash.) concluded her freshman season with a tough round, shooting 14-over-par 86. Beyke took a bogey, double bogey, and triple bogey on three of her first four holes and couldn’t get much else going, save for a birdie on No. 15. She finished the tournament in 34th place with a three-day total of 248, 32 strokes above par.
As a team, the Redhawks saw their best day of the tournament, counting 303 strokes (+15). They end the championship in sixth place with a score of 915, 51 strokes above par and 33 strokes behind champion Denver, who counted 882 strokes (+18) over the three rounds. The Pioneers’ Tonje Daffinrud won the individual title, going wire-to-wire with a score of 209, seven strokes under par.
The Redhawks will lose three seniors to graduation: Pearson, Quinn, and Christine Cook (Yakima, Wash.). They have already begun the reloading process, however, as Alexus Song of Auburn, Wash., has signed a National Letter of Intent and will play for Seattle U in the 2013-14 season.