May 10, 2008
Athens, Ga. - The No. 10 Auburn women's golf team shot an 8-over 296 to finish fourth at the NCAA East Regional Saturday afternoon at the University of Georgia Golf Course. With the top eight finish Auburn advanced to the NCAA Championship for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons. Freshman Cydney Clanton tied for fourth, earning her fifth top-five finish of the season.
"Cydney and Candace were a great one, two punch today," head coach Kim Evans said. "I was proud of Mariana Macias for finishing out strong after quadruple-bogeying on 16. I am proud of team and we are excited about competing in New Mexico in a couple weeks. We are looking forward to playing four good rounds of golf there."
Clanton fired even par 72, her best round of the tournament to jump three spots to fourth. It marked her fifth top-five finish and seventh top-10 finish of the season. Clanton opened with a bogey on 10, but rebounded and fired birdies on 15 and 17. Another bogey on 18 put her at even for the back nine. Clanton registered another birdie on one and one more bogey on nine to finish the course at even par.
Sophomore Candace Schepperle was the top performer on Saturday, shooting 1-under 71. Schepperle finished tied for 13th, marking her fifth top-20 finish of the season. Schepperle opened the back nine shooting even par from 10 thru 16, before carding a birdie on 17. Schepperle's only bogey of the day came on three, but she was able to go under par with a birdie on eight.
Senior Margaret Shirley tied for 36th after shooting 3-over 75. Shirley finished the back nine 4-over after carding bogeys on 11 and 17 and a double on 16. She fared much better on the front nine, going even through five. A birdie on six and even par the rest of the way, put her at 3-over for the day.
Junior Mariana Macias and freshman Sarah Thead both finished tied for 59th. Macias shot 6-over 78. On the back nine, Macias carded birdies on 13 and 15, but had four bogeys or worse. She fired a birdie on one and a bogey on eight to finish the day strong. Thead fired 7-over 79 after carding seven bogeys on worse and only one birdie on the day.
No. 5 Florida was able to hold off No. 1 Duke for the title. The Gators shot 10-over 298 (290-295-298--883) and were one stroke ahead of the Blue Devils (285-303-296--884) at the end of the day. Duke shot 8-over, but it wasn't enough to take the lead. No. 8 Georgia had the best round of the day, shooting 2-over 290 to jump into third (299-300-290--889). Auburn finished five strokes off of Georgia. No. 20 Virginia rounded out the top five (296-310-292--898).
South Carolina's Benedicte Toumpsin won the individual title by one stroke over Duke's Amanda Bluemenherst and Louisville's Sara-Maude Juneau. Toumpsin fired 4-over 76 today (68-70-76--214), but had enough of a lead from the previous day to hang on. Both Bluemenherst and Juneau shot 2-over 74.
Auburn will have a week off before traveling to Albuquerque, N.M., for the NCAA Championship May 20-23.