New Mexico Lobos Women’s Golf — at the Arizona Wildcat Invitational
Where: Sewailo Golf Club (Par 72, 6,386 yards) – Tucson, Arizona
Top Four Teams: 1- Southern California 280-271-283=834 (-30); 2- Arizona 277-285-283=845 (-19); 3- UNLV 291-292-282=865 (+1). 4- Campbell 295-287-288=870 (+6). 15- New Mexico 315-302-305=922 (+58).
Lobos: 13- Alexandra Moisand 74-69-75=218 (+2); T21- Manon Molle’ 71-77-74=222 (+6); T71- Eva Saulnier 84-76-76=236 (+20); 83- Ingrid Gutierrez 86-80-80=246 (+30); T84- Katerina Jaeger 86-82-80=248 (+32).
Tucson, Arizona – Freshman Alexandra Moisand showed the potential in her D-I rookie clubs by finishing 13th in the Arizona Wildcat Invitational. Moisand was the only Lobo to crack into the 60s in this 54-hole event as she turned in cards of 74, 69 and 75 to record her best finish as a Lobo.
Her 69 also was her personal best as a Lobo by five shots. She turned in a 74 twice during the fall season of 2014. Her three-round total was a big jump for Moisand, who went 81-81-81 at the Bruin Wave Invitational earlier this spring. Her previous best finish in a major collegiate tournament was 50th at UNM’s Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire held at the UNM Championship Course.
There were 88 golfers at the Arizona event.
The Lobos also saw improvement from Manon Molle’ with a 54-hold card of six-over par that left UNM’s No. 1 golfer tied for the 21st spot. Molle’ is coming off a broken bone in her foot and did not compete in UNM’s fall season. She is still shaking a bit of rust off her clubs and also has to play with pain in her still-healing foot.
It was not a good overall tournament for the Lobos who finished 15th in the field of 15 teams – 88 shots behind tourney winner Southern California. The USC Trojans powered to the win with a three-round team card of 834 which was 30-under par. Arizona claimed the runner-up spot at 845, 19-under par.
The UNLV Rebels finished third at 865 – one-over par and 57 shots ahead of New Mexico. The New Mexico State Aggies came in eighth at 37-over par. The Aggies beat UNM by 21 shots. The top Aggie finisher, Viviana Macias, was a shot behind UNM’s Moisand. The Lobos were seven shots out of 14th place which went to Idaho.
USC’s Karen Chung took individual honors with a 54-hole card of 67-68-70=205. She won by a shot over Arizona’s Lindsey Weaver and two shots ahead of UNLV’s Dana Finkelstein. USC had four golfers in the top seven spots.
The Lobos are the defending Mountain West champions, but need to improve their cards if they want to keep UNLV – or possibly San Diego State – off the 2015 throne. Finkelstein tied for runner-up honors at last year’s MW tournament and is the two-time MW Women’s Golfer of The Year. Molle was on the MW Second Team in 2014.
The Lobos had to finish the second round early Tuesday morning before playing the final 18 holes of the event. The second round had to be called because of darkness.