Powers places seventh at NAIA Championships; earns All-Tournament honors for second straight season
LINCOLN, Neb.—(Team Results I Individual Results) With her best round of the four-day tournament, Concordia senior
Sunny Powers (Medford, Ore./North Medford H.S.) jumped six places to finish seventh overall at the NAIA Women's Golf National Championships.
Capturing All-Tournament honors for the second straight season, Powers (74-79-76-73—302) fired a 1-over 73 on Friday to finish 14-over over 73 holes. The seventh-place finish represents the highest single result by a Concordia golfer, topping Powers' 11th-place result from a year ago.
With a 1-under 71 in the final round to set a championship record 291, SCAD Savannah's Alazne Urizer (76-71-73-71—291) held of Oklahoma City's Elia Folch (72-75-73-72—292) by a single stroke to earn medalist honors. Urizer was the only competitor to card multiple under-par rounds at the national championships, ultimately finishing three-over par.
Urizer's teammate, Sofia Molinaro (74-75-75-70—294) climbed nine spots on the final day to place third overall.
Starting on No. 10, Powers opened with a birdie and went on to score two more birdies and two bogeys for a 1-inder through her first nine holes. Powers closed out the tournament with seven pars and two bogeys on the front nine, finishing one stroke away from tying Northwood's (Texas) Daniela Martinez (72-74-77-78—301) and Bellevue's (Neb.) Renee Santoyo (75-76-75-75—301) for fifth place.
SCAD Savannah (304-304-206-295—1,209) and Oklahoma City (302-309-303-295—1,209) went toe-to-toe in the final round with both teams carding 7-over 295s—the lowest team scores for the entire tournament—to finish the four-day event at 7-over.
For just the second time in NAIA Women's Golf National Championships history, the team title was decided by a one-hole playoff, with Oklahoma City emerging victorious. The Stars became the first team to win back-to-back titles since 2009, when they concluded a streak of five-straight national championships. The team title is the seventh all-time for Oklahoma City (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2014) in the 20-year history of the event.
Heading into the final hole, top-ranked SCAD Savannah (Ga.) held a five-shot lead on defending national champion Oklahoma City. A short par five that had produced numerous birdies throughout the week, No. 18 proved to be the perfect hole for the Stars to make up ground. The scoring trio of Anna Mikish, Kailey Campbell and Caroline Goodin played the hole two-under par for Oklahoma City, while SCAD Savannah's golfers shot 1-over par.
With back-to-back sub-300s, Bellevue (314-314-299-297—1,224) finished two strokes back of the co-leaders for third place.
Four of the national championships' sub-300 rounds were shot in Friday's final round by Oklahoma City (295), SCAD Savannah (295), Bellevue (297) and William Woods (299).
SCAD Savannah's Urizar was the individual medalist after shooting a national championships-record 291 over 72 holes (76, 71, 73, 71).
This year's national championships concluded with an awards ceremony that included the announcement of Oklahoma City's Marty McCauley as the 2014 NAIA Women's Golf Coach of the Year and the all-tournament team. The all-tournament consists of the top 15 individual finishers, including ties.
2014 NAIA Women's Golf National Championships All-Tournament Team
Alazne Urizar, SCAD Savannah (Ga.)
Elia Folch, Oklahoma City
Sofia Molinaro, SCAD Savannah (Ga.)
Myriam Hassan, William Woods (Mo.)
Daniela Martinez, Northwood (Texas)
Renee Santoyo, Bellevue (Neb.)
Sunny Powers (Medford, Ore./North Medford H.S.), Concordia (Ore.)
Sarah Gillard, Coastal Georgia
Caroline Goodin, Oklahoma City
Christian Liggin, Coastal Georgia
Geandra Almeida, Bethel (Ind.)
Brynn Tomie, Victoria (B.C.)
Winnie Hyun, British Columbia
Jodie Peacock, William Woods (Mo.)
Kailey Campbell, Oklahoma City
Kyla Clancy, Rocky Moutain (Mont.)
Candice Lindeque, Cumberlands (Ky.)
Wiebke Schlender, Indiana Tech