April 16, 2007
LOMPOC, Calif. - The Santa Clara women's golf team concluded the first day of the WCC Championships in third place Monday afternoon, shooting back-to-back rounds of 319, giving the the Broncos a two-round total of 638, 37 strokes back of the day's leader, Pepperdine. The Broncos stayed within striking distance of second-place San Francisco heading into Tuesday morning's final round, though, trailing the Dons by only 15 strokes.
SCU is only five strokes ahead of fourth-place Portland, and eight ahead of Gonzaga. Tomorrow's final round will tee off at approximately 9 a.m. from La Purisima Golf Course.
"We really, really have to come out and shoot a good score tomorrow morning to stay ahead of Portland and Gonzaga, we do not want to relinquish third place," said head coach Polly Schulze. "We need to get a little fired up and play strong and post a good score tomorrow. We just have to grind because we really didn't play well today, but luckily we're in the third spot and we want to build off of that."
Freshman Jamie Nonaka paced the Bronco women Monday, following an opening-round 78 with a round of 77 in the afternoon, leaving her tied for sixth place with a score of 155, 10 strokes behind the leader, Pepperdine's Eileen Vargas.
Hilaire Fouts and Samantha Trask followed close behind Nonaka, shooting matching scores of 159 for the day. Fouts, with rounds of 77 and 82 Monday, and Trask, who shot a 79 in the morning and an 80 in the afternoon, sit tied for 12th, still in contention for the All-WCC honors that go to the top 15 finishers in the tournament.
Erin Sullivan and Corey Utsurogi rounded out the Bronco quintet with two-round scores of 165 and 173, respectively, on Monday.
Following the morning round, the Broncos found themselves tied for fourth with the Pilots, four strokes back of the Bulldogs, and 11 back of San Francisco. Although SCU repeated with a 319 in the afternoon, the Broncos were the only team to not shoot a higher second-round score among the five teams, which allowed them to gain crucial ground on Portland and Gonzaga and finish the day in third place, where the team has finished in each of the last three years.
