April 2, 2006
TEMPE, Ariz. - For the second time in as many years the PING/ASU Invitational came down to the wire between UCLA and Arizona State. After pulling out a fifth-score tiebreaker to win last year's tourney the Sun Devils came up just short of repeating a duplicate finish on Sunday as No. 2 UCLA (288, 289, 288) edged No. 3 Arizona State (283, 298, 285) by one stroke (865-866) to win the 2006 PING/ASU Invitational at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe.
ASU entered the day in second place, four strokes behind UCLA - the same number of strokes the Sun Devils trailed the Bruins by heading into last year's final round. Despite having three players - freshman Azahara Munoz (-5), senior Alissa Kuczka (E) and freshman Jennifer Osborn (E) - shoot even par or better in the final round, the Sun Devils were unable to overcome the performance by the Bruins, whose final round included a 7-under 65 by freshman Jane Park and a 4-under 68 by sophomore Amie Cochran.
"I don't think we lost the tournament so much as UCLA won it," said Arizona State coach Melissa Luellen. "Jane Park played great golf (for UCLA) today."
No. 17 Texas A&M (294, 293, 291) finished in third place with a 14-over 878, followed by No. 6 USC (295, 298, 300) in fourth place with a 29-over 893 in fourth place and No. 5 Pepperdine (292, 308, 295) with a 31-over 895 in fifth place.
Rounding out the top 10 of the 16-team tournament were No. 10 UNLV (290, 317, 296) and No. 19 Stanford (299, 304, 300), which tied for sixth place (+39); Missouri (314, 294, 296), which came in eighth place with a 40-over 904; Tulsa, which came in ninth place with a 45-over 909 and No. 21 Arizona (307, 313, 294) which finished with a 50-over 914.
Arizona freshman Adriana Zwanck won the individual title with an overall score of 6-under 211 (69, 73, 68) for the tournament. Three Sun Devils - Munoz (73, 76, 67), Osborn (72, 72, 72) and junior Tiffany Tavee (66, 75, 75) - finished tied for sixth place with an even-par score of 216.
Other Sun Devil finishers included Kuczka, who finished tied for 10th with a three-over 219 (72, 75, 72); junior Charmaine Erasmus, who finished tied for 15th place with a six-over 222 (73, 76, 73); sophomore Brooke Todare, who finished tied for 32nd place with an 11-over 227 (76, 77, 74); junior Lindsay Anderson, who finished tied for 63rd with a 19-over 235 (83, 77, 75) and junior Danielle Perata, who finished tied for 81st with a 29-over 245 (81, 83, 81).
With ASU's second-place finish, the Sun Devils have now recorded two-first place finishes, a second-place finish and a fourth-place finish since resuming the spring portion of their schedule in mid-February.
The Sun Devils return to action in three weeks when they travel to Tucson, Ariz., for the 2006 Pac-10 Championships (April 24-26).