When the college golf world last saw Kent State, the Flashes had advanced to match play – for a second consecutive year – at the NCAA Women’s Championship. Every one of the five players on that roster returned and traveled to New Mexico for the season opener, but it was the extra player who led the team this week. Junior Marissa Kirkwood posted rounds of 71-71-72 for a 2-under 214 total that left her tied for sixth. Senior Michaela Finn was another shot back in a tie for 10th. Kent State counted two other players in the top 20 as Pimnipa Panthong and Chloe Salort tied for 19th.
As for Pepperdine, a 7-under 281 left the Waves with the best final-round score, but it wasn’t quite enough to move ahead of Kent State. Pepperdine started the day in eighth place.
The Waves did claim the top player on the individual leaderboard, senior Hira Naveed. The Perth, Australia native had a final-round 68 to reach 7-under 209 for the tournament and leapfrog first-round leader Darian Zachek of New Mexico. Pepperdine’s last medalist was Marissa Chow at the 2015 WCC Championships.
“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m really happy to finally get the win,” Naveed said. “I felt like my whole game held together really well, and I felt really good mentally throughout the event. The team played really solid as well, and we are all very happy with how we finished the tournament strong. We all have a lot to look forward to and we feel like this is just the beginning for our young group. We are very excited for the year ahead.”
Information from Pepperdine Athletics used in this report