Alabama Falls to 24th Place at NCAA Championship
5/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
COLUMBUS, Ohio ?? The Crimson Tide women’s golf team had another tough outing at the NCAA Championship in the second round of action, as the team shot a 317 and dropped to 24th place in the team standings. The 2006 Championship is a four-round event being played on the Ohio State University Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.
Alabama shot a 307 on the opening day of the event and was tied for 19th place entering second-round action. The Tide owns a 36-hole team total of 624, 10 strokes off of top-20 pace.
Arizona State holds a three-shot edge over defending champion Duke after 36 holes of competition. Southern Cal, Tennessee, Purdue and Pepperdine make up the remainder of the top five in the team standings.
“Obviously, we are disappointed with our performance today,” head coach Mic Potter said. “We just haven’t been able to get anything going so far this week, but we still have two rounds to make up some ground.”
After the first round of play that saw the Tide’s two top players struggle, standout junior Jenny Suh rebounded from a difficult opening round to shoot a two-over 74 on day two. Suh, who fired an 80 in NCAA competition for the first time in her career yesterday, responded with three birdies, 10 pars and five bogeys.
“Jenny had a good day, like we knew she would,” Potter said. “Our hope is that the rest of the team can improve from the first two rounds and we can move up in the last two days.”
Unfortunately for the Tide, the good news ended with Suh’s resurgence. Suh was the only UA competitor to break 80 on the day, as nearly every other player added strokes to their first-day totals.
Carina Sorensen and Laura Goodwin each managed to salvage rounds of 80, after they had posted scores of 74 and 77, respectively, in the opening round.
Sarah Sturm carded an 83 for the second straight day, while Audrey Gale posted an 87 in the second round.
Eileen Vargas of Pepperdine holds the lead in individual competition overJennifer Osborn of Arizona State.
The third round of the NCAA Championship is set to begin on Thursdsay, May 25, at 8 a.m. The final round of competition is slated for Friday, May 26 to determine the 2006 team and individual champions.
