University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Red Rocks Invitational
Lewis Nabs Top 20 Finish at Red Rocks Invitational
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Sedona, Ariz. – Rachel Lewis shot a second-straight 80 to claim her fifth top 20 individual finish of the season to lead the USC Upstate women's golf team to a 14th-place showing at the Red Rocks Invitational Saturday afternoon at Oak Creek Golf Club.
Lewis, a freshman from Llanishen, Wales, shot another 80 on the course and finished right where she started the day, tied for 19th. It helped Upstate shoot a 333 on Saturday to finish with a 36-hole tournament final total of 668 to finish 14th out of 18 teams. The Spartans were just four shots out of a top 10 finish.
"Rachel has really played well considering how much she is fighting a nagging knee," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. Lewis has been bothered by pain in her knee throughout the spring season.
"We saw some good shots and good holes in this tournament. We made quite a few birdies, but followed them too often with double bogeys. We have to get stronger mentally for an entire five-hour round. Amanda (Hall) continues to play solid golf in our No. 2 position."
Had a couple of shots gone differently, Upstate could have turned in a top 10 finish in the tournament. Northern Arizona, the host of the event, took the tournament championship with a 613 total. Western Michigan was second at 623 and was followed by Montana (629), Nevada (637), Toledo (643), Eastern Michigan (649), Grand Canyon (650), Montana State (654), Northern Colorado (658), Southern Utah (664), Utah Valley (664), Weber State (665), North Dakota State (667), Upstate (668), Portland (671), Eastern Washington (677), Idaho State (703) and South Dakota (730).
Amanda Hall cut her score by three strokes from Friday's round and finished with an 80 on Saturday to move up 15 positions on the leaderboard. She finished tied for 27th with a 163 total. Taylor Pleier (Spartanburg, S.C.) carded her second-straight 85 to finish tied for 60th with a 170 total. Johanna Ebenhag (Gothenberg, Sweden) finished with an 89 on Saturday for a 36-hole total of 176 and Summer Wall (Chesnee, S.C.) totaled 185 with an 88 on Saturday.
Nevada's Lauren Hernandez shot an even-par 72 to vault into the lead and win the individual championship with a 150 total.
