VISTA, Calif. – The Western Washington University women's golf team had a solid finish to its second spring tournament, climbing three spots on the leaderboard to finish in 10th place out of 19 teams at the Cal State San Marcos Fujikura Invitational. 

 

The Vikings recorded a 14-stroke improvement from Monday's first round, turning in the 5th-best team round in Tuesday's final round at Shadowridge Golf & Country Club. WWU carded a 20-over-par 308 in the final round, led by an even-par 72 by junior Megan Billeter and a 2-over-par 74 by sophomore Elise Sumner. 

 

"Today was a solid comeback for the team," said WWU Director of Golf Luke Bennett. "Much better golf as a whole and something for us to build off of as we head into the rest of the spring schedule."

 

Tournament host and No. 13 nationally-ranked Cal State San Marcos recorded a three-stroke tournament victory finishing at 18-over-par 594, followed closely by No. 1 Lynn (+21, 597), No. 21 Biola (+29, 605) and No. 5 Barry (+37, 613). The Vikings finished the 36-hole tournament at 54-over-par 630 and were just three strokes back of eighth place.

 

Billeter recorded her third top-10 finish in six tournament this season, tying for 7th in the 100-player field. After carding a 6-over-par 78 in Monday's opening round, Billeter caught fire with six birdies in the final round for her second round of par or better this season to finish at 6-over-par 150. The Spokane native led the field with eight birdies during the tournament.

 

"Megan's play over her last 27 holes was fantastic," said Bennett. "Only one little hiccup but threw in seven birdies over that stretch and eight overall in the tournament. Awesome stuff. It was fun to watch her swing the club with confidence."

 

Sumner made her season debut tying for 12th place with rounds of 77-74 for an 7-over-par 151. The 2020-21 GNAC Player of the Year led all players in the tournament by playing the four par 3 holes at 2-under-par.

 

"Elise was very solid and consistent over the past two days," said Bennett. "It is great to see her back in the lineup competing for the Vikings."

 

Claire Moon (T61st, +19, 163), Sarah Shea (T74th, +24, 168) and Sophia Schmidt (T86th, +29, 173) rounded out the Vikings individual performances in the tournament.

 

"Sarah (Shea) had some great up and downs today…she can make some really hard chip shots look easy," added Bennett. "Sophia (Schmidt) played a much cleaner round today and deserved to finish better. A step in the right direction for her."

 

Diana Delgado completed of Cal State San Marcos completed the wire-to-wire individual tournament victory at 1-under-par 143, holding off Alice Gotbring of Barry for the two-stroke win. The 19-team tournament field featured five teams ranked in the top 25 nationally and nine teams in the top 50 in the Golfstat Relative Team Rankings.

 

Here is a look at WWU's individual results and the team leaderboard from the Fujikura Invitational hosted by Cal State San Marcos at Shadowridge Golf & Country Club in Vista, California:

 

 

After playing spring tournaments in consecutive weeks the Vikings will take a few weeks off and get back into competition at the Palm Valley Classic in Goodyear, Arizona April 1-2 and then the GNAC Championships April 18-19 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Here is a look at the complete 2021-22 schedule for the WWU Women's Golf program, which includes four fall and three spring tournaments leading up to the GNAC Championships. All tournament recaps, season statistics and program history can be found on WWUVikings.com/WGolf.

 

 

The WWU women's golf team begins its 29th season as an intercollegiate sport in 2021-22. WWU has a rich history on the links, winning the first five GNAC Championships beginning in 2011 and returned to the podium in 2021. WWU has made 11 appearances in the NCAA II West Regional Championships. WWU has also made six trips to the NCAA II National Championships. A Viking has been named the GNAC Player of the Year in eight of the 10 years it has been awarded, including 2020-21 Player of the Year Elise Sumner. 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 produced nine All-Americans.