University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Kiawah Intercollegiate
Lo's 79 Leads Spartans At Kiawah Island Classic
2/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Feb. 23, 2010
Kiawah Island, S.C. - Cheryl Lo saved her best golf for the final round, firing a USC Upstate tournament low 79 to lead the Spartans to their lowest team round of the tournament as Upstate completed play in the Edwin Watts/Kiawah Island Classic Tuesday afternoon.
Lo opened the tournament with rounds of 89 and 88, but rallied Tuesday to fire a 79 to finish as the low Spartan in the tournament. She helped lead Upstate to a 353 team total Tuesday, its lowest round of the tournament by seven strokes over Monday's 360. Despite lowering its score in each round, Upstate finished 33rd in the tournament.
"Kiawah is a course where you need to keep the ball in front of you," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "You don't have to hit it long, but you do have to be accurate. You have to keep the ball in front of you. Our problem in this tournament is that we didn't do that. We hit the ball in places where we didn't need to hit it and our scores reflected that. We are a humbled group now. Moving forward, we have to hit solid shots, ht the shots that we know we can hit and not try to play like someone else."
"We had some bright spots. Marissa's (Clontz) 84 yesterday in heavy rain was solid. Cheryl had a couple of bad holes today, but still shot a 79. We are going to approach our practice round a lot differently on hitting our shots and rolling putts the way we need to in order to shoot lower scores. We have to ask our players to have more of a competitive fire and take more pride in how they play the game."
Miami shot a final round 289 to vault over Augusta State and take the team championship. The Hurricanes finished with a 54-hole total of 892 to win by a stroke over Minnesota (893). Augusta State, which led after each of the first and second rounds, fell to third with an 895 total and was followed by Oral Roberts (897), East Carolina (897), East Tennessee State (898), Middle Tennessee (898), Campbell (898), College of Charleston (902) and Florida International (903) in the top 10.
Western Carolina finished with a 912 total to finish 11th and was followed by Kansas (915), Central Arkansas (915), Illinois State (916), Missouri State (923), Oregon State (924), Elon (925), Akron (933), William & Mary (935), Mercer (938), Morehead State (946), Jacksonville State (948), Toledo (950), Charleston Southern (955), Drake (958), Richmond (960), Wichita State (962), Southern Illinois (977), Winthrop (987), Old Dominion (996), Bucknell (1006), The Citadel (1057) and Upstate (1078).
Johanna Ebenhag cut 12 strokes off of her round from Monday and carded an 89 as the second lowest Upstate golfer on the day. Natalie Buch shot a 91 in the final round, cutting eight strokes off of her score from yesterday. Summer Wall finished with a 94, while Marissa Clontz carded a 96.
Crystal Reeves (Oral Roberts) shot a final round 73 to finish in a tie for the individual title with ETSU's Nina Muehl, who shot a 1-under-par 71. The pair finished with a 54-total 213.
