April 11, 2007

HORSESHOE BAY, Tex. - After coming from behind to take the lead on Tuesday, Sam Houston State cruised on Wednesday to win the 2007 Southland Conference Women's Golf Championship at Horseshoe Bay's Ram Rock Golf Course. After carding a tournament low 300 as a team on Tuesday in round two, the Bearkats were tops again on Wednesday with a 304, for a three round total of 912 (308-300-304), outpacing two-time defending champion Lamar (306-309-310--925) by 13 strokes.

SHSU picks up its second title in the short history of Southland women's golf after winning the 2004 crown. The first Southland women's championship was contested in 2002.

Southland newcomers Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi had good first showings with third and fourth-place finishes, respectively. The Sugar Bears posted a 319-310-313--942 total to edge the Islander (309-326-308--943) by one stroke. McNeese State (950), Texas State (956), UTSA (972) and Nicholls (992) rounded out the eight-team field.

Individually, SHSU's Stefanie Page (75-76-70--221) shot the tournament's lone sub-par round on Wednesday, a one-under-par 70, to finish in a first-place tie with Lamar's Therese Nilsson (71-75-75--221) at the end of regulation.

The duo would settle individual medalist honors in a sudden-death playoff, starting on hole No. 1, which they both finished with par. The second hole of the playoff was the difference as Page birdied the par-4, 350-yarder before Nilsson's birdie attempt missed off the right edge.

Nilsson, who was four over par on Tuesday and Wednesday at the par-71, 5,901-yard course, won the 2006 individual title by shooting a 227 as a freshman.

Page, a sophomore from The Woodlands, Texas, becomes the second SHSU student-athlete to win individual honors after Raman Saran did so in 2004.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Mary Betancourt finished third among the 40 individuals with a 73-78-72--223 to go 10 over par.

Other SHSU top-10 finishes were Landa Stewart (80-74-74--228) in fifth and Jennifer Heinz (77-71-83--231) in eighth. Teammates Wendy Joyner (82-79-77--238) and Mariana Villarreal (76-82-85--243) tied for 15th and 20th, respectively to round out the SHSU scoring.

Daniele Dunlop led all Lady Colonel golfers tied for 23rd place with a 244. Jessica Marquart (248) finished in 31st place, while Theunette Van der Walt (249) closely followed in 32nd place. Natalie Robinson (254) tied for 36th place, while Emiley Patton (264) placed 39th overall.

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