UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's golf team slid a bit early, but regained its footing in the late morning and early afternoon to run away from the field and secure The Nittany Lion Invitational championship for the second-straight season. Penn State has now won five of its last seven home invitationals, 25 overall, while becoming repeat champs for a second time during that span (2015, 2016).
The Nittany Lions opened the day with an 11-shot lead over Boston College, however, after a rocky first nine holes they relinquished the top spot at the turn before finding their stroke and coming in strong finishing 2-over on the day and 3-under for the championship. Penn State had seven top-20 finishers on the week included each of the starting five.
Kennesaw State finished as runner-up at 13-over while Boston College (14-over), Youngstown State (26-over) and Richmond (30-over) rounded out the top-5.
Penn State had three clean cards on the back-nine and went 8-under as a team over that stretch of the tournament. PSU was paced by junior Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) and sophomore Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) who fired 3-under and 4-under, respectively, on that part of the course. Cox even dripped in an Eagle putt on 18, her second Eagle of the week on that hole.
"Every player is a little bit different, some want to know the score and some don't, but I went straight to the person I know wanted to know and that was Michelle and she said 'coach I'm going to get some birdies that's all there is too it'," commented head coach Denise St. Pierre. "Everybody pulled together [on the back nine], it wasn't just one player going low, it was everybody staying around par or a little better, it was a complete team effort."
Cox secured her lowest career finish at 1-over, 217, and in a tie for fourth following a 1-under, 71, in the final round. Dhruva carded a final round of 1-over, 73, and finished the tournament tied for 11th at 4-over for the weekend along with teammates Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) and Katie Scheck (Greensboro, Ga.). Scheck, playing as an individual, sandwiched a 74 between a pair of 73's to account for her final score of 220 while Nienhaus rounded out her weekend with a 5-over, 77, on Sunday.
Senior Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) had he second-consecutive top-3 finish after registering a 1-over, 73, in the final round sliding one spot to third, finishing five shots off the lead.
Senior Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) tied Cox for fourth with a 1-over, 217, finish after a second consecutive 1-over round of 73 on Sunday. For Willis, this marks the seventh top-10 finish of her career and her third top-5 finish at the Nittany Lion Invitational.
Junior Victoria Tip-Aucha (Vienna, Va.) had a very strong weekend as well finishing tied for 17th following a 1-over, 73 in the final round.
Junior Lauren Freyvogel (Gibsonia, Pa.) and freshman Myranda Quinton (Burlington, Ontario) finished just outside the top-20 tied for 22nd and 25th, respectively, while sophomore Jami Morris (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) was the big mover of the day climbing 22 spots and into a tie for 51st with a 1-over, 73.
Senior Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) rounded out the individual scoring with a 10-over, 82, in the final round.
The Nittany Lions take next week off from competition before returning to the course at the Evie Odom Invitational in Virginia on September 30 through October 2.
Full Day 2 Results
