GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
The Pepperdine women’s golf team continued its strong fall season with a fourth place finish at the Stanford Pepsi Intercollegiate over the weekend, the third top-five finish for the Waves in the young season.
The third-ranked Waves finished with a 17-over-par team score of 869. Top-ranked Duke University ran away with the team title, finishing at 18-under, 27 shots ahead of second-place UCLA. University of Southern California took third and Arizona State University rounded out the top five.
Pepperdine Head Coach Laurie Gibbs was pleased with the Waves’ overall effort.
“I think they played well,” Gibbs said. “The field was pretty solid. It was a really good showing by us.”
Junior Eileen Vargas was the highest Pepperdine finisher, shooting a 3-over-par 215 to finish in a tie for 10th. Duke’s Elizabeth Janangelo took home top individual honors with two of her Blue Devil teammates tying for second.
Gibbs said the team could have played a little better individually, but coaches couldn’t have asked for much more in tough conditions at the Stanford Golf Course.
“I don’t ever want to single out anybody because we’re such a good team,” Gibbs said. “We went in knowing the competition would be very difficult, like Duke, and it was a very challenging course. We had a good showing but I’m sure everybody would say they had round where they could have played a little better.”
In the first two rounds, Pepperdine was forced to tee off early in the morning when the rough was thick and wet, making for a long first few holes, according to Gibbs.
“I don’t ever want to make excuse, but we teed off at 7:30 in the morning,” Gibbs said. “It was very cold for the first five holes, but around hole six or seven it started to warm up. In the morning, if you miss the fairway, you’re down in the wet grass, and it’s pretty tough.”
The team played through the damp morning holes to follow up its two first-place finishes in its first two tournaments with another top-five showing. Gibbs is giddy about the way the team has played thus far, especially in the face of some of the stiffest competitioncollegiate golf has to offer.
“We’ve had two wins and a fourth-place finish,” Gibbs said. “I think we’ve played exceptionally well.”
Pepperdine’s next tournament is the UNLV Invitation in Henderson, Nev., beginning on Halloween. Gibbs said the team would try to carry its swagger over into the tournament.
“The main thing for us is to bring confidence into the UNLV tournament,” Gibbs said. “We just need to stay patient. Our goal, like always, is to have three solid rounds of golf. If we get three good rounds out of all five players, we’ll do just fine.”
10-31-2005
