No. 1 Duke begins season with playoff victory

By STEVE WILLIAMS

 Duke hopes this year’s NCAA Fall Preview is just that.

The Blue Devils opened their season with a victory Sept. 14 in the event that brings together most of the nation’s top teams at the site of next spring’s NCAA Championship Tournament. Auburn’s Grand National Lake Course will be that venue next May 18-21.

The Auburn Lady Tigers also have realistic plans to take the NCAAs on their home turf and gave Duke all it wanted in the Preview, extending the tournament to a playoff after both teams finished at 6-over-par 870. All five players on each team played the extra hole and Duke’s three pars and two bogeys were good enough as Auburn played the hole in four over.

"It was great to pull out a win today, especially in a playoff," said Duke head coach Dan Brooks. "We made a good team effort today. To have a couple of freshmen start for us in the third-most important tournament of the year and for them to play as well as they did was outstanding. From top to bottom, we have a very solid team this year and that is exciting."

The Blue Devils are needing the two heralded freshmen – Brittany Lang and Anna Grzebien – more than first expected. Junior Niloufar Aazam-Zanganeh may miss the entire fall campaign with a hip injury and Duke has only six players on its roster.

Duke trailed when the final round began but senior Virada Nirapathpongporn fired a final-round five-under-par 67 to spark the Blue Devils to a 285 (three-under) on the day while Auburn came in at 287. Arizona, which led after two rounds, slipped to a 297 and finished eight shots off the pace in third place.

Nirapathpongporn, who won the U.S. Amateur championship in August, wasn’t Duke’s best finisher despite the final round. Sophomore Elizabeth Janangelo finished third, four shots off the pace of Pepperdine’s Carolina Llano.

Nirapathpongporn tied for eighth with Lang, who opened her Duke career by taking the first-round lead with a 67.

Grzebien ended tied for 29th in her first college outing while senior Leigh Anne Hardin salvaged her first tournament with a final-round 72.

Nirapathpongporn made her final-round move when she went 5-under-par during a five-hole stretch, highlighted by an 18-foot eagle putt on the par-5 No. 12 hole.

"I didn't start out well during the first two days of the tournament, so I wanted to come out and finish strong today," said Nirapathpongporn. "I started off the round with a bogey and then got in a rhythm where I was able to go five-under-par through a span of five holes, which was very nice."

Two other ACC teams were in the elite 18-team field and North Carolina took 12th and Wake Forest 17th.

North Carolina which shot 302-306-305 was led by senior Ashley Prange’s 12th place effort (217) and defending ACC champ Meaghan Francella’s 22nd (221).

Wake Forest’s highlight came in the final round when junior Christine Hallstrom aced the 145-yard 17th hole, her first hole of the day. She posted a 74 on the round.

WFU junior Ashley Hoagland was the team’s top finisher, tying for 26th with a seven-over 223.

ECU trumps Louisville

 Duke wasn’t the only team to defeat a team on its home course in September. East Carolina beat Louisville at the 11-team Cardinal Cup Sept. 20-21, using a final-round 305 to pull away to a 17-shot victory.

It was the Pirates’ second tournament of the fall campaign and they fared much better than they did the previous week with an eighth-place finish in the Cougar Classic.

ECU’s 926 total featured scoring from veterans and rookies. Three Lady Pirates finished in the top 10, and all five Lady Pirates finished in the top 17 of the tournament. Junior Adrienne Millican placed second at 224 (75-76-73) and senior Maragret Mitchell finished fifth with 228.

Pirate freshman Jessica Hauser of Germanton made her first collegiate start at the tournament and recorded a 237 (82-78-77) to tie for ninth.

"I am proud of the way we competed in this tournament," said ECU head coach Kevin Williams. "With all the bad weather this week in Greenville, we were unable to practice at all and this win shows the talent that we have on the team this year. This was a great way to come back from a disappointing loss last week and beating Louisville on their own course shows what this team is capable of."

Catawba makes history

 The Catawba College women’s golf team made history Sept. 8-9, winning a tournament for the first time in the five years of the program. The Lady Indians earned the title at the Anderson Invitational at Brookstone Meadows Golf Club in Anderson, S.C.

Catawba shot a two-day total of 669, defeating Lincoln Memorial by four strokes.

Senior Kristen Kyle tied for first after shooting a school-record 73 in the first round and an 84 in the second round. She lost in a three-way playoff.

Sophomore Paige Haverty of Greenville, N.C., had a pair of 79s to finish fourth while freshman Melissa Kepley of Statesville was 16th, shooting rounds of 89 and 84.

Catawba followed up its first title with a second in the Patsy Rendelman Invitational Sept. 14-15 and a fifth-place showing in the Top-Flite Haverty’s Intercollegiate at Charlotte Sept. 22-23.

New assistants

 Stephanie Neill Harner has been named the new assistant coach for the Wake Forest women’s golf team while Megan Morgan has joined the staff at UNC-Chapel Hill. Both are former players at those schools.

Harner joins head coach Dianne Dailey, who was her coach when she played golf at WFU from 1992-1995.

Harner has a strong background and relationship with Wake Forest and Dailey. As a Deacon golfer she received All-American honors each of her four years and is the only WFU player to accomplish that feat. Harner appears prominently throughout Wake Forest golf history, holding the top individual 18-hole score of 67 and the most tournament wins with eight titles. 

During the ACC’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2002-03, Harner was one of 10 WFU golfers named to the ACC 50th anniversary women’s golf team and one of just three former Deacons to appear on the league’s Top 50 Female Athletes list.

Morgan returns to North Carolina, where she played from 1995 to 1998, and joins head coach Sally Austin’s staff.

Morgan was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer and honorable mention All-America for the Tar Heels in 1997-98. She was a four-year starter for the Tar Heels and led Carolina to an eighth-place NCAA finish in 1994-95 and a 15th-place finish in 1997-98.

Rankings

 In the first Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index of the season (through Sept. 24), Duke was ranked first with Auburn, Arizona, Michigan State and Florida State rounding out the top five.

North Carolina was No. 33, N.C. State No. 34, East Carolina No. 43, Wake Forest No. 54 and Campbell No. 55.