BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University women's golf team turned in a solid third-place team finish in the 16-team WWU Invitational that was played Monday-Tuesday at Bellingham Golf & Country Club.

 

The Vikings entered Tuesday's final round in first place with a four-stroke lead, but slipped slightly on the leaderboard with a 22-over-par 310 in the final round. WWU recorded a top-10 team score in program history in Monday's first round at 8-over-par 296. Overall the Vikings completed the tournament at 30-over-par 606.

 

Junior Claire Moon led the Vikings with a fourth-place finish completing the 36-hole tournament at 2-over-par 146 (71-75). Senior Megan Billeter tied for 12th (+7, 151) and junior Elise Sumner tied for 15th (+8, 152) to round out the Vikings top-20 performers in the 88-player field.

 

"Overall a very solid tournament for the team highlighted by our great first round," said WWU Director of Golf Luke Bennett. "We can take away a lot of positives from the last 36 holes and look to have a great finish to our fall schedule in Hawaii in two weeks. A really great tournament from Claire (Moon) to place in the top five and steady golf played by Megan (Billeter) and Elise (Sumner) to finish in the top 15 in a good tournament field." 

 

The University of British Columbia and Dominican tied for the team title at 22-over-par 598, with UBC breaking the tie for the team title winning a one-hole team playoff. The Thunderbirds top four scores on the first hole at Bellingham Golf & Country Club totaled 2-under-par, with Dominican at 1-under-par to earn runner-up honors. Dominican had the lowest team round of the tournament firing a 1-over-par 289 in Tuesday's final round to jump five spots on the leaderboard.

 

Dominican's Claire Shubin recorded a four-stroke victory for individual medalist honors finishing at 3-under-par 141, including a final-round score of 3-under-par 69. Taylor Stewart of Chico State and Lavinia Romito of Holy Names tied for runner-up honors at 1-over-par 145.

 

The Vikings close out their fall schedule with a pair of tournaments in Hawai'i October 25-29 with the HPU Sharks Shootout (Oct. 25-26) and the Dennis Rose Intercollegiate (Oct. 28-29). 

 

Here is a look at WWU's individual results and the team leaderboard from the 2022 WWU Invitational played at Bellingham Golf & Country Club:

 

Here is a look at the Vikings 2022-23 fall schedule for the WWU Women's Golf program. All tournament recaps, season statistics and program history can be found on WWUVikings.com/WGolf.

 

 

The WWU women's golf team is in its 30th season as an intercollegiate sport in 2022-23. WWU has a rich history on the links, winning the first five GNAC Championships beginning in 2011 and returned to the podium with back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022. WWU made its 12th appearance in the NCAA II West Regional Championships in 2022 after earning the GNAC's automatic bid. WWU has also made six trips to the NCAA II National Championships. A Viking has been named the GNAC Player of the Year in nine of the 11 years it has been awarded, including 2020-21 Player of the Year Elise Sumner and 2021-22 award winner Megan Billeter. WWU has also produced the only two players in GNAC history to earn four First Team All-GNAC awards (Jenn Paul and Kristen Hansen) and has had nine All-Americans.