University of Tennessee Athletics
Newell Cards Top-5 Finish at NCAA Championship
May 24, 2016 | Women's Golf
EUGENE, Ore. -- Tennessee sophomore Anna Newell, the 21st-ranked player in the country, posted 71 (-1) in the final round of stroke play at the NCAA Championship to finish the tournament tied for fourth place. The finish not only marks Newell's sixth top-10 finish of the season, but also just the Volunteers' third top-five finish at the NCAA Championship in program history. Additionally, the placement is the best by a Tennessee golfer. Young-A Yang and Jessica Shepley carded fifth place finishes in 2001 and 2004, respectively.
Teams Advancing to Match Play
- 1. UCLA: 286-291-285-282--1144 (-8)
- 2. Stanford: 295-283-290-279--1147 (-5)
- 3. Southern California: 289-280-291-290--1150 (-2)
- 4. Washington: 289-285-292-286--1152 (E)
- 5. Virginia: 293-294-286-282--1155 (+3)
- 6. Duke: 299-283-280-296--1158 (+6)
- 7. South Carolina: 293-289-290-290--1162 (+10)
- 8. Oregon: 297-282-291-296--1166 (+14)
Top-5 Individual Scores
- 1. Virginia Elena Carta (Duke): 69-68-66-69--272 (-16)
- T2. Dewi Weber (Miami): 69-66-74-71--280 (-8)
- T2. Haley Moore (Arizona): 68-70-74-68--280 (-8)
- T4. Cheyenne Knight (Alabama): 69-69-71-73--282 (-6)
- T4. Anna Newell: 69-67-75-71--282 (-6)
Tennessee Scores (Team did not advance to fourth round)
- Team (16th Place): 297-285-303--885 (+6)
- T4. Anna Newell: 69-67-75-71--282 (-6)
- T58. Blakesly Warren: 77-70-74--221 (+5)
- T90. Hannah Pietila: 75-73-77--225 (+9)
- T118. Shannon Brooks: 76-80-77--233 (+17)
- T123. Lucia Polo: 78-75-82--235 (+9)
Newell's program-best finish started in the first round of the NCAA Championship on Friday, May 21. She carded a team-high six birdies on the day en route to her seventh sub-70 round of the season. The score of 69 put her in position to make a run at the top spot in the second round.
She opened Saturday's round with two birdies in a row and then went on to add two more in her first nine holes played. After making the turn to the front nine, she carded two bogeys but got the strokes back almost immediately. Then, Newell reached the eighth green in two strokes and one-putted to move to eight-under and tie for first place. However, Miami's Dewi Weber eagled late in the round to take a one-stroke lead and push Newell into a tie for second.
Newell struggled in the third round, posting 75 to move to five-under par overall. The round, although not her best, still kept her near the top of the leaderboard (T5) and qualified her to advance as an individual to the final round of stroke play on Monday.
In the fourth round, Newell recorded a bogey on her first hole to drop to four-under. As she settled in, she returned to her normal game of golf--pars and birdies. Newell gained the stroke back on No. 6 with a long birdie putt and then registered par on the remaining front nine holes. She started the second half of the round with back-to-back birdies to move to seven-under. Newell went on to card one more bogey in the round on the par-four 13th before parring out her last five holes.
Duke's Virginia Elena Carta won the individual title after posting a new 74-hole tournament record for best score in relation to par. She shot 69 (-3) in the final round to bring her overall score to 16-under par (272). The previous record of 12-under par was achieved twice, once in 1983 by Miami's Penny Hammel and again in 2010 by Oklahoma State's Caroline Hedwall.
For the most up-to-date information about the Tennessee women's golf team, visit UTSports.com/w-golf, follow @Vol_WGolf on Twitter and like the Vols at Facebook.com/UTWomensGolf.
