ALAMEDA, CALIF. - What a round and what a day for the Sonoma State women's golf team as the group climbed five spots in the leaderboard after day one to take the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout Tournament Title! After shooting a combined 303 (+15) to put themselves in a tie for 5th place, the Seawolves would come out on a mission in the final round and the four best scorers for SSU all shot a two over or better to finish the day as the only team under par, allowing them to win by ONE stroke over fellow CCAA member Cal State East Bay. 
 

Despite the overall success from the team in their final round, they were led by one of the best golfers in the CCAA, senior Lexi Nielsen. After a disappointing 77 (+5) performance in her first round which included 3 birdies but 8 bogeys, Nielsen would set a blistering pace after finishing her first 12 holes four under with just one bogey, three birdies, and an eagle on the par 4 10th. After recording her only two bogeys on the day on 12 and 14, she would gather herself and focus in to birdie her final three holes of the round. Her 6 birdies and an eagle would allow her to finish with a tournament low 66 (-6), not only propelling herself into the top three of the tournament individually, but also allowing herself to break her own school record for an individual low round of 67 (-5), in which she recorded last spring in the teams very own SSU Invitational. 

"Lexi is such a special player. She's just one of those competitors who never seems rattled or flustered. She always remains under control and is a great leader for our team. She holed out an incredible eagle after a bomb of a drive on the par 4 10th and was just dialed in from the beginning of the day" (HC, Verhunce).   

Despite Nielsen stealing the show in the teams final round, fellow senior and veteran golfer Samantha Cabunag helped keep SSU in the mix with her even par opening round. Cabunag recorded a team high 5 birdies in her first round but was unable to stay under par as she also picked up 5 bogeys on the day. In her second round, Cabunag birdied 12, 17 and 18 to finish under par on the back nine and just one over in her round. 

The Seawolves young talent also came through on the final day as freshman Lauren Garcia and sophomore Brenna Ozel combined to shoot +3 and helped SSU to earn a team score of 286 (-2). Garcia and Ozel would each pickup multiple birdies and finish the back nine even par. Four of the team's five golfers combined to shoot four under on the back nine as the Seawolves took advantage of their individual momentum and good conditions. 

The teams fantastic under par final round performance would break another two school records including lowest team round score and lowest team tournament score. Head coach Val Verhunce and his squad would break the low team round by four strokes, 290 (+2) compared to today's 286 (-2). They would also break the low team tournament score by three strokes, 592 (+16) compared to the teams 589 (+13) score this week.  

"It was a great day for us. The weirdest part is that I was not even aware of how quickly we were climbing the leaderboard. I saw some of our girls miss some short putts early in the round and I did not think we were off to a great start. I was made aware of the eagle from Lexi but I do not like to pay attention to the leaderboard during a round. I just like to read our players body language and assist them whenever I can. It was a great team performance and climbing five spots really shows the depth of our team" (HC, Verhunce).  

Lexi Nielsen's 66 (-6) performance would go down as not just the final round low out of the entire field but the tournament low between both rounds. Samantha Cabunag's solid two rounds would place her inside the top-5 individually while Ozel and Garcia each finished inside the top-30. Congratulations once again to Lexi Nielsen and the Sonoma State women's golf team on a historic and record breaking day and being crowned the 2022 Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout Champions.   

Val Verhunce and his team will ride the momentum and jump right back into action next week as they head down south for the Cal State San Marcos Fujikura Invitational from March 7th-8th. Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. Sonoma State athletics also has launched a new fan app in partnership with From Now On. Download the free app today in both the Apple and Google Play stores by searching Sonoma State Seawolves in the app store. @SonomaSeawolves | #NomaNation