(Photo Courtesy – Ben Parris)
Palos Verdes California: Despite unfavorable weather conditions ASU ended the Therese Hession Regional Challenge with a dominating win over Pepperdine.
Weather prevented the tournament from running according to plan. Originally set to be a stroke play style tournament running from February 4-6.
They shifted and determined that teams would play in three Match play rounds from February 3-5.
Led by sophomore Beth Coulter, the Sun Devils convincingly beat No. 20 Pepperdine on day three of the Regional Challenge.
The Sun Devils best round was round three in which they stifled Pepperdine beating them 4-0-1.
The Sun Devils only let two of their rounds make it to the last hole; a tie by sophomore Paula Shulz-Hanssen represented the only points lost by ASU. Schulz-Hanssen mounted a comeback, capping it by winning hole 18 to secure the tie.
The other Sun Devil that went the full 18 was freshman Patience Rhodes who led by as much as four but was able to hang on and preserve her one hole lead through the last eight holes.
The Star of round three was Beth Coulter who was up six with four holes to play getting a decisive win over opponent Kayee Kwok.
Junior Grace Summerhays also performed well, beating her opponent by five with four holes left.
Junior Calynee Rosholt won her match-up against Jeneath Wong by two with one hole to go.
ASU prevailed in round three despite starting the match play slow.
No. 11 ASU faced off against the No.8 University of Texas Longhorns in round one and were only able to secure one win losing 1-0-4.
Schulz-Hanssen defeated her opponent Anglea Heo up five with four holes left to go.
Aside from the lone win the rest of ASU struggled and no other Sun Devil pushed their match to the full 18.
In round two the Sun Devils were more competitive against No.45 Ohio State losing 1-2-2.
ASU only had two individual wins through the first two rounds but was able to turn it around.
ASU caps this tournament with two losses and a decisive win.
They will look to continue to improve as they are down to their final four tournaments leading into the PAC-12 Championship.
Their next matchup is the Duel in the Desert and the Sun Devils will be taking on the University of Denver Pioneers.
