March 2, 2011
NEW ORLEANS --- The Texas A&M women's golf team cooled off a bit from its blistering second round pace but still posted an eighth-place finish at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate on Tuesday at the English Turn Golf & Country Club.
The Aggies posted a top 10 finish against a field that contained seven of the nation's top 10-ranked golf programs, including No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 USC, No. 4 LSU and No. 5 Duke. In the process, A&M posted head-to-head wins over five teams ranked ahead in the Golfstat rankings - No. 4 LSU, No. 13 Vanderbilt and No. 14 North Carolina, No. 17 Tennessee and No. 21 Auburn.
"I'm happy with a top 10 finish in this field, however, I thought we could have done way better than eighth," fourth-year Aggie coach Trelle McCombs said. "We are really close to putting together three good rounds. We're just going to keep on working hard and learn from these past two tournaments."
The Aggies fired a 9-over 297 on Tuesday, and finished at 21-over par with rounds of 302-286-297=885. In the team standings, A&M trailed No. 2 USC (+4), No. 1 Alabama (+8), No. 15 Tulane (+15), No. 5 Duke (+15), No. 6 Purdue (+16), No. 8 Virginia (+16) and No. 10 Arizona State (+18).
Scoring for the Aggies in the final round were freshmen Katerina Ruzickova (-1), Natalie Reeves (even) and Chelsea Mocio (+5) and sophomore transfer Susy Grunden (+5). Sophomore Chloe Garner, playing as an individual, posted an impressive 1-over 73, and senior Sarah Zwartynski was 9-over for the day.
Ruzickova had her second straight top 10 effort with a seventh-place finish at 1-under (73-71-71=215). Last week, Ruzickova tied for fifth at the Central District Invitational and is Texas A&M's nominee for Big 12 Golfer of the Month for the month of February.
Grunden tallied a top 20 finish in her A&M debut by tying for 16th at 2-over (74-6-77=218). Highlighting her tournament was a second-round 2-under par 67 that included a string of six straight birdies.
Rounding out the Aggie finishers were Zwartynski (t52, +12, 75-72-81=228), Reeves (t70th, +16, 84-76-72=232), Garner (t85th, +21, 83-81-73=237) and Mocio (87th, +22, 80-81-77=238).
Next up for the Aggies is a return trip to the Pelican State for the LSU Classic on March 11-13 in Baton Rouge, La.