Sept. 25, 2005
FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Auburn senior Maria Martinez played to a second-place finish at the Mason Rudolph Championship Sunday afternoon, helping the Tigers move up two spots to end the tournament in fifth. Auburn shot a 25-over 889 during the three-day tournament at the Vanderbilt Legends Club on the par 72, 7,200-yard Ironhorse Course.
"Maria really had a great weekend," head coach Kim Evans said. "She was up there in the hunt every day posting good scores. As a team, we did what we wanted to do today and that was to move up a few spots. We have more work to do in getting to where we want to be, but I saw some good things this weekend."
Martinez shot a 3-under (69-73-71--213) on the weekend, tying with Jacqui Concolino of Vanderbilt for second in the tournament. Amanda Blumenherst of Duke led the pack with an 8-under (69-71-68--208) first-place finish.
Junior Nicole Hage finished just behind Martinez in sixth with a 2-over (71-74-73--218), followed by Tigers Margaret Shirley in a tie for 30th at 12-over (74-76-78--228) and Abigale Schepperle (77-77-78--232) and Jessica Lovell (78-75-81--232) both in a tie for 46th at 16-over.
Individually, freshman Mariana Macias shot a 14-over (76-77-77--230) on the weekend for a tie for 40th.
Duke took the team title carding a 14-over (285-297-296--878), followed by Georgia in second at 17-over (285-293-303--881), Arkansas in third at 20-over (291-296-297--884), UCLA in fourth at 21-over (290-295-300--885) and Auburn rounded out the top five at 25-over, out of 15 teams in the tournament.
Auburn will have a weekend off before traveling to the Lady Tar Heel Invite Oct. 7-9 in Chapel Hill, N.C., held at the Finley Golf Course.