Alyaa Abdulghany of USC sank a six-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to beat Elizabeth Scholtes of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for the individual championship in the Battle at the Rock at Oak Quarry Golf Club http://www.oakquarry.com in Riverside.
Abdulghany, playing as an individual with only one Trojan teammate in the field, finished with a score of 70-74-68—212, 4-under-par, while Scholtes, freshman from Alameda, wound up at 68-72-72—212. Carly Dehlin Hirsch of Utah Valley totaled 73-75-69—217 to tie for third with Courtney Vogel of Grand Canyon, who finished at 77-71-69—217.
“I’m so happy and blessed with the win,” said Abdulghany, a sophomore from Newport Beach, who claimed her first college title. “This course needed good shot-making and green reading. I believe I did well in those aspects, gave myself a chance every hole and it turned out in my favor.”
Said Coach Sofie Aagard of Cal Poly SLO: “Alyaa made a birdie and Elizabeth’s putt lipped out. … Elizabeth finishing in a tie for first was amazing. She played very consistent through the event and was able to make a lot of birdies in her second round.”
Caroline Cantlay of Cal Poly SLO shot 72-74-72—218 to tie for fifth with Sarah Busey of Santa Clara, who wound up at 76-70-72—218, Francesca Santoni of Gonzaga, who finished at 78-71-69—218, Victoria Gailey of Nevada Reno, who wound up at 74-76-68—218, and Chaithra Katamneni, also of Nevada Reno, who came in at 76-74-68—218.
Yifei Wang of California Baptist posted a score of 70-75-74—219 to tie for 10th with Carolina Sandstrom of Grand Canyon, who shot 70-75-74—219 and Megan Knadler of Wyoming, who finished at 71-73-75—219.
Kayla Yn led Cal State Northridge in a tie for 15th at 71-75-75—221, while Jakeishya Le of UC Riverside was 18th at 71-76-75—222, and Vanessa Watkins of Cal State Bakersfield tied for 49th at 79-77-75—231.
Grand Canyon of Arizona rallied in the final round to claim the team title at 302-291-288—881, 15-over, followed by Cal Poly SLO at 291-295-296—882 and Santa Clara at 294-296-293—883, while Hawaii totaled 303-294-289—886 to tie for fourth with Gonzaga, which came in at 301-295-290—886.
Nevada Reno was sixth at 301-304-284—889, followed by California Baptist at 297-301-294—892, Cal State Northridge at 292-307-294—893, while UC Riverside wound up at 298-300-302—900 to tie for ninth with Wyoming, which totaled 295-312-293—900.
Cal State Bakersfield finished 15th at 319-336-321—976.
For complete results, visit http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=17345
