Belles Bound for Nationals With Automatic Qualifier

Results (pdf)

MARSHALL, Mich. - The Saint Mary's golf team will be at the 2012 NCAA Division III Golf Championships in May as they claimed the conference's automatic bid on Saturday. Saint Mary's will be making their seventh overall appearance and fourth in-a-row at the NCAA Championships.


The Saint Mary's Golf Team is headed to the 2012
NCAA Division III Golf Championships.
(photo courtesy Geoff Henson - Olivet College)The Belles shot a 328 to tie with Olivet for the low team score of the round. Hope finished the round just a stroke behind with a 329, but the Belles' 20+ stroke lead coming into today's round was the difference in the end. Saint Mary's finished the three 18-hole rounds with a cumulative score of 986. Hope finished second with a three-round total of 1,009. Olivet was third with a 1,016 stroke total. Calvin finished fourth with a three-round score of 1,091.

For the third time in as many rounds, Doyle O'Brien was the medalist. The sophomore shot a 77 (38-39) with a birdie and 11 pars while tying for the best par three and par four scoring. Christine Brown cut 16 strokes off of her round from yesterday to post the Belles' second-best score with an 81 (37-44) to take a share of third place overall. Her front nine score of 37 was the best of any golfer on the day. Brown, who had eight pars, also shared round-best honors with two birdies and was tied for the lead in par three scoring.

Paige Pollak was right behind Brown with an 82 (39-43) on Saturday. She added ten pars and a birdie while finishing tied for fifth. Janice Heffernan finished in a tie for 17th place with a round of 88 to secure the Belles' 328 score. Natalie Matuszak shot an 89 for 19th place as the fifth scoring-eligible golfer for Saint Mary's.

Alexi Bown, who was playing as an individual, improved her score from yesterday by 10 strokes on Saturday. She had a birdie on a par five hole and added eight pars to finish with the 12th-best score. Jessica Kinnick also played as an individual an shot a 96 (48-48).

The 2012 NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championship will take place May 8-11 at Zollner Golf Course on the campus of Trine University in Angola, Indiana.