April 25, 2007
Seattle, Wash. - The Arizona State women's golf team finished in first place at the 2007 Pac-10 Championships, claiming their first Pac-10 title in eleven years. ASU now holds the record for most Pac-10 titles with seven. The Sun Devils, who won their fourth straight tournament, shot 33-over 897 for the three-round tournament, besting second-place UCLA by 18 strokes.
"I'm absolutely thrilled for the team," said head coach Melissa Luellen. "The course played really difficult the whole tournament. It feels good to finally win a Pac-10 Championship, playing in one of the best conferences in the nation."
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Anna Nordqvist was named both the Pac-10's Freshman and Player of the Year. |
For her outstanding coaching ability, Luellen was named, for the second straight year, Pac-10 Coach of the year.
Freshman Anna Nordqvist, who was in first place coming into round three, finished as Pac-10 runner-up after UCLA's Tiffany Joh forced sudden death play. Nordqvist missed her birdie putt on the 18th hole in sudden death, making Joh the Pac-10 Champion.
"I had my chances on the last hole, but I just was unable to get it done," said Nordqvist. "There is nothing that I can do about it. She (Tiffany) had a really great 18 holes today." >
"Anna played great," said Luellen. "She had a little problem with her distance putting. She wasn't making her putts that she was making in the first two rounds. She made a double [bogey] on the 14th hole, which was the turning point. She never lost her composure. I'm so proud of her. It is hard for her to understand now, but she'll learn from this one day. She'll have many more opportunities to become Pac-10 Champion."
However, Nordqvist didn't leave empty handed. Nordqvist was unanimously named Pac-10 Player of the Year and Pac-10 New Comer of the Year. The last Sun Devil to win both awards was Louise Stahle in 2005.
"She was a shoe in for Pac-10 Player of the Year," said Luellen. "She worked really hard and she really deserved it."
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Melissa Luellen was named the Pac-10's Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year. |
Nordqvist shot 2-over 218 (68-72-78) for the three-day event.
Freshman Juliana Murcia recorded the highest finish of her collegiate career at the Pac-10 Championships finishing in fourth place after shooting a 4-over 220 (76-73-71) for the tournament. With her fourth place finish, Murcia received her first All Pac-10 honorable mention.
"Our freshman are really playing great," said Luellen. "Juliana was the only player to shoot under par in the third round. We talked about it the whole year. She didn't feel as she was as prepared as she would have liked going into the season. She didn't play in as many tournaments over the summer as she would have liked. She felt she was a little rusty. Her goal was to get better every tournament and she did. We were standing at the scoreboard and I pointed out to her that her score for the day was the only one in red [under-par]. She is a great competitor. She feels really good about it."
Also earning Pac-10 accolades were sophomore All-Americans Jennifer Osborn and Azahara Munoz. Both Osborn and Munoz along with Nordqvist were named first team All-Pac-10. It is the second straight All-Pac-10 first team honor for Osborn and Munoz.
Osborn shot a 1-over 73 in the third round for a three-round score of 12-over 228 to finish in 10th. Munoz shot a 6-over 78 in the third round for a three-day total of 15-over 231 to finish tied for 15th. Senior Lindsay Anderson finish tied for 39th after shooting a three-round total of 33-over 249.