UF Women's Golf Wins Lady Gator Invitational

Sunday, February 24

Gainesville, FL

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

SunTrust Lady Gator Inv.

UF Women's Golf Wins Lady Gator Invitational

Sunday, February 24, 2002 | Women's Golf

The University of Florida women's golf team shot a final-round 300 and held off a late surge by South Carolina to win the 2002 SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational. The Gators shot a three-round 900, defeating the Lady Gamecocks by nine strokes to claim their second Lady Gator Invitational title in three years.

"It was definitely a team effort - the team played solid," said UF Head Coach Jill Briles-Hinton. "Everyone hung in there yesterday to put us in position to do what we did today."

Brittany Straza shot a 73-71-77--221 and Jeanne Cho carded a 75-74-72--221 to finish in a tie for second place. Freshman Andrea Vander Lende followed, shooting a three-round 227 (74-79-74) to finish in 12th place overall. Joy Stephenson, Whitney Code and Amanda Dick, who was competing as an individual, all finished with a three-round 234 to tie for 25th overall. Other individual finishes for the Gators were Sam Zausner White in a tie for 41st with a 238 and Kim Best in a tie for 47th with a 240.

"We had six players in the top 25 in this tournament. We've said all year we have a deep team, and the Lady Gator gave us an opportunity to showcase our players - we had a solid performance from every golfer out there, and we're very proud of them," said Briles-Hinton. "The individuals on the team had some solid rounds. Brittany's 71 sparked us yesterday, and Jeanne's 72 sparked us today. Andrea came in with a 74 today, and Joy and Whitney rounded out the team playing some steady golf."

"But the best thing about all this is the competition on this team. Some of our individuals' scores could have counted for our team scores. The more competition you have the better this team is going to get, and that's one thing we're fortunate to have - depth on our team, which brings competition, which makes you better."

LSU's Meredith Duncan continued to dominate the field, carding a 214 (69-70-75) to finish in first place seven strokes ahead of the second-place finishers. The Gators finished with six players in the top 25.

The Gators have a break until their next tournament, which begins March 22. Florida will travel to Athens, Ga., to play in the 2002 Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, hosted by the University of Georgia, from March 22-24.

A full set of results and tee times is available in PDF format on www.gatorzone.com/golf/women. Click on the Statistics tab and click Cumulative Statistics for final scores.

Team Scores

1. Florida 298-302-300--900

2. South Carolina 304-308-297--909

3. Georgia 298-310-302--910

4. Vanderbilt 307-305-308--920

5. LSU 298-316-311--925

6. Mississippi State 301-308-321--930

7. South Florida 299-315-320--934

8. Central Florida 308-328-302--938

9. Kentucky 305-326-308--939

10. North Carolina 307-324-310--941

11. Mississippi 307-321-314--942