March 23, 2010
PINEHURST, N.C. - The Illinois women's golf team finished up its first of two spring break tournaments with a 12th-place showing at the Pinehurst Challenge in Pinehurst, N.C. Playing on the par 72 6,004-yard Pinehurst #6 in the 18-team field, the Illini had a final round score of 309, compiling a 54-hole total of 924. Sophomore Samantha Sloan shot a third round 74 to finish at 225, nine-over par, and also finished 12th individually. Sloan recorded five birdies on the day.
"We definitely learned quite a bit from our play yesterday," head coach Renee Slone said. "We discussed course management issues and I think everybody did gather quite a bit from that discussion, which they were able to apply today, but it does take time. You're not going to be able to turn around things like that within a day, but some people were able to apply that information to their benefit today."
Sophomores Hailey Koschmann and Nora Lucas each concluded the tournament in 34th place with 54-hole totals of 230 and 14-over par. Koschmann shot a final round 77, while Lucas had a 73 in the third round. Lucas' round included one birdie and 15 pars. Lucas' round of 73 and tournament total of 230 matches her lowest round and tournament of the year.
"Nora really took the information we discussed last night and applied it today, and obviously she was able to put it into play right away and benefited from it. Nora just had a very, very consistent round, just solid. Sammi really the last two tournaments, she has really learned a lot and it seems like she is turning the corner. She had really hit upon a number of key things that are going to propel her forward."
Rounding out the Orange and Blue are junior Raquel Hopton, who had a final round 85 and finished with a tournament total of 243, 27-over par, and Kaitlyn Wampler, who also shot a final round 85 and ended with a 545-hole total of 248, 32-over par.
"I played really well," Sloan said when discussing her play. "I've actually learned a lot in the last couple weeks about myself, my game and how I like to play. It was nice to go and apply that and it felt good to have a consistent tournament."
Florida State took the tournament title with a one-under par total of 863. Runner-up Maryland (896) finished 33 strokes behind Florida State at 32-over par, one stoke ahead of third place Campbell University (897) at 33-over par. Rounding out the top five were East Tennessee State (903) at 39-over par and North Carolina State (905) at 41-over par. Florida State's Lacey Agnew had medalist honors with a four-under par, 54-hole total of 212.
Illinois will have a short turn-around as they travel to Crystal River, Fla., for the University of Cincinnati Spring Invitational on March 26-27.
"We'll have a practice session tomorrow morning to really address individually things each player needs to work on from what we saw the last couple of days," said Slone about preparation for the upcoming tournament on Friday. "Thursday we'll have a practice round, so we'll use that time to really hone in on short game, the greens and coming up for our strategy on that golf course, then we'll be ready come Friday."
