Min Ties For Seventh At Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational
10/10/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
SAMMAMISH, Wash. - Golfers struggled with a difficult course setup from top to bottom of the leaderboard Wednesday in the final round of the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational at Sahalee Country Club, Gonzaga University finishing eighth with a 54-hole score of 915.
The Bulldogs, playing their final tournament of the fall, had rounds of 303-304-308 to finish three shots behind San Jose State, a 2013 NCAA finalist.
"It was a brutally cold morning, but turned into decent day. The course was set up incredibly hard. Most teams shot higher today and we were no exception," Gonzaga head coach Brad Rickel said. "I thought we played well, but we let stuff get away in morning and didn't play the first nine very well. But we sucked it up and played a ton better on the backside and almost caught San Jose State in the end."
Senior Tai Jade 'TJ' Kliebphipat had the best round of the day for the Bulldogs with an even-par 72 as only medalist Mariah Stackhouse of Stanford University broke par with a 1-under 71 Wednesday the over the 6,039-yard, par 72 layout. Stackhouse finished at 7-under 209 for a 3-shot victory over teammate Mariko Tumangan to help Stanford to an 863 and a 27-stroke victory over host University of Washington.
"I'm happy for TJ. Her last collegiate round at Sahalee was a great one, flay out playing good golf. I thought she made a bit of a breakthrough in the last couple of rounds. Everybody else stuck to it and played it to the end," Rickel said.
Freshman Ciera Min shot a final-round 5-over par 77 to go with rounds of 74-72 for a 54-hole score of 223 and a tie for seventh.
Nine golfers, including three Bulldogs, had to complete the final hole of Tuesday's second round at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday prior to the start of the final round. Weather delays and darkness forced the suspension of the second round with golfers on the course Tuesday.
Raychelle Santos finished at 229 to tie for 29th for the Zags.
"That's the best score we've ever had at Sahalee,' Rickel said of the Bulldogs 915, bettering the 932 Gonzaga shot in its first appearance in the fall of 2011. "It's a hard golf course and the Sahalee winds always make it tough. I don't think this was our best tournament ever but I don't think we played that bad. We beat some good teams and showed we belong. We just have to work on getting that fourth score to help us more."
The Bulldogs open the spring season Feb. 17-18 at the Jim West Challenge in New Braunfels, Texas.
