May 16, 2008

Complete Results

HOUSTON, Texas - Western Washington University's Breanna Carmichael (So., Tacoma/Bellarmine Prep) tied for 15th in medalist play and the Vikings placed sixth in the team standings at the NCAA Division II Women's Golf National Championships which ended Friday at the Memorial Park Golf Course.

Western shot a final-round 32-over par 320 to finish the four-day, 72-hole tourney at 1,253. The Vikings were fourth after the first two days with rounds of 304 and 306, then dropped to fifth with a third-day round of 323.

Top-ranked Rollins FL, which won four straight national titles from 2003 to 2006, rallied to take top honors with a score of 1,181 (294). That was seven strokes better than No.2-rated Nova Southeastern FL (301=1,188), which was making its first national appearance.

Grand Valley State MI finished a distant third (303=1,221) in the eight-team tourney, followed by Ferris State MI (315=1,239) and Tarleton State TX (309=1,242).

Tarleton State was the West Region champion with Western placing second. The Vikings had been ahead or tied with Tarleton in each of the first three days.

"We played 10 rounds in 15 days and I don't if we got fatigued or what, but we just couldn't get anything going the last two rounds," said Western coach Bo Stephan.

"If you had told me before regionals that we would be going to nationals, I'd have been ecstatic. But after being here, I felt that we were knocking on the door of at least coming back with a trophy after two rounds and we didn't play our best golf at all ... Coming into this season we were supposed to be the fourth best team in our region, but we played well when we had to at regionals, so I'm happy with what we accomplished."

Carmichael closed out the tourney with a round of 5-over 77, the Vikings' best of the day, for a 306 total.

"Tough situations kept getting thrown at her, and she responded well every time," Stephan said. "She's definitely played the best golf of her career starting at regionals."

Western's Catherine Kim (Sr., Bellevue/Skyline) (79) and Kaitlin Parker (Jr., Burlington/Marysville-Pilchuck) (85) tied for 29th at 315. Lianne Matkin (So., Spokane/Northwest Christian) tied for 36th at 324 (80) and Allison Gillette (Sr., Seattle/Ballard) tied for 38th at 325 (84).

Rollins' Joanna Coe captured medalist honors, finishing at 1-under 287 (75). That was four shots better than Florida Southern's Heather Burgner, who had a 291 total (73).

It was the fourth national appearance as a NCAA member for Western, which had placed fifth in each of its three previous trips.