Second-ranked USC came from 13 strokes back in the final round to repeat as champion in the season-opening Annika Intercollegiate on the Watson Course at Reunion Resort in Orlando, Fla.
The Trojans posted a score of 279-285-276–840, 24-under-par, to win by two strokes over Arkansas, which finished at 283-270-289–842.
“It was a great final round and pretty exciting,” said USC Coach Andrea Gaston, whose team won its opener for the third time in the last four seasons. “We just couldn’t make any putts (on the first day) and the girls were probably disappointed. Today it was a matter of finding the right attitude and trying to have a fresh perspective and allowing themselves to be patient and wait for the putts to drop.
“It was a bit of a surprise on the back (nine) to see we were only five back. From there I thought we could do it. We tried to stay in the moment rather than worry about the outcome. We tried to make a putts and wait for it to come together. … They all got hot on the back nine.”
UCLA was third at 279-272-293–844, followed by Georgia at 278-279-288–845, Florida at 282-286-280–848, South Carolina at 274-290-285–849 and Duke at 293-278-286–857.
Central Florida finished eighth at 288-281-290–859, followed by Arizona State at 283-
291-291–865, Oklahoma State at 286-293-287–866, Virginia at 287-285-297–869, and Arizona at 288-286-298–872.
Maria Fassi of Arkansas won the individual title with a score of 71-66-68–205, 11-under, followed by Lilia Vu of UCLA at 66-67-73–206, while Leona Maguire of Duke shot 74-
65-68–207 to tie for third with Haley Moore of Arizona, who finished at 69-71-67–207, and Bailey Tardy of Georgia, who totaled 67-66-74–207.
Katelyn Dambaugh of South Carolina wound up at 64-73-71–208 to tie for sixth with Maria Torres of Florida, who came in at 68-71-69–208.
Victoria Morgan led USC at 69-70-70–209 to tie for eighth with Alana Uriell of Arkansas, who finished at 68-70-71–209, and Linnea Strom of Arizona State, who totaled 66-70-73–209.
Tiffany Chan of USC shot 67-72-73–212 and finished in a tie for 17th that included teammates Gabriela Then, who totaled 70-71-71–212, and Robynn Ree, who wound up at 73-72-67–212, while Karen Chung rounded out the scoring for the victorious Trojans in 25th at 73-73-68–214.
For UCLA, Bethany Wu tied for 14th at 71-67-73–211 and Bronte Law tied for 21st at 72-68-73–213.
