The Portland State women’s golf team made quite a run at the Big Sky Conference Championship but came up just short in Chandler, Ariz., as a late push by Northern Arizona University pushed the Lumberjacks past the Vikings for the title. The two schools were tied going into the final round of play, but Northern Arizona quickly took the lead, and a late string of birdies by sophomore A Ram Choi was not enough to make up the difference.
Golf team settles for second at Big Sky Championship
The Portland State women’s golf team made quite a run at the Big Sky Conference Championship but came up just short in Chandler, Ariz., as a late push by Northern Arizona University pushed the Lumberjacks past the Vikings for the title. The two schools were tied going into the final round of play, but Northern Arizona quickly took the lead, and a late string of birdies by sophomore A Ram Choi was not enough to make up the difference.
Following the tournament, head coach Kathleen Takaishi said, “Northern Arizona outplayed us. A Ram birdied four of the last five holes to keep us in it, and we had some looks at birdie on 18 from Kelly [Miller] and Riley [Leming] and Britney [Yada]…but I think yesterday’s round probably was the difference. If we had played a little bit better we would have had a cushion.”
The Vikings have won the conference tournament six times before, and in the opening round it appeared as though they would claim their seventh win. Senior Yada shot a bogey-free first round for a score of 70 to kick off the championship for Portland State. Choi and freshman Leming also started strong, each registering a 71 that gave them a share of second place in the early going.
But the Lumberjacks had an answer for the Vikings’ hot start. After finding themselves down by nine strokes after the first round, Northern Arizona fought back and managed to tie the score by the end of the second. Knotted up at 592, the teams geared up for their final 18 holes.
The Lumberjacks came out early and were three under par after three holes, building a six-shot lead over PSU. Choi attempted to cut the difference with birdies on holes 14, 15, 16 and 18, but a two-putt birdie by Lumberjack Kaitlen Parsons crushed the Vikings’ hopes of taking a record-breaking seventh Big Sky Championship. Northern Arizona accomplished the feat instead with its seventh win.
Individually, the Vikings had a tremendous tournament. Yada finished in a tie for second place with Parsons at 70-73-72 – 215, and Choi came in just behind them in fourth place with an even-par 71-75-70 – 216. Leming recorded a 71-77-76 – 224, putting her in a tie for 13th place, while Miller’s 79-77-76 – 232 tied her for 23rd place and nearly beat her personal best of 231. Kristin Henno rounded out the action for Portland State, coming into the clubhouse with a 78-80-87 – 245 score that tied her for 43rd place.
The results of the championship mirrored the preseason coaches poll, which picked Northern Arizona as the favorite to win it and had PSU second. While the Vikings would obviously have liked to prove that poll wrong, they can look back on a successful 2012–13 campaign, and will have a strong lineup ready to go next season as they return six of the seven players currently on the roster.
