Little Posts 2nd College Win in Giustina Memorial

Tuesday, September 23

Corvallis, Ore.

All Day

University of Oregon

2nd, 906

Trysting Tree Golf Course

Kendra Little, 2008-09 Oregon Women's Golf

09/23/08 | Women's Golf

By: GoDucks.com

* Final results are available in the LINKS box to the right, and a photo gallery is available by clicking here.

CORVALLIS, Ore. ? Sophomore Kendra Little rallied in Tuesday's third and final round to win the Giustina Memorial Classic and lead the No. 26 University of Oregon women's golf team to a runner-up team finish.

The Eugene native shot a 73 Tuesday ? the day's best women's score on the par 72, 6,282-yard Trysting Tree Golf Course ? to win by four strokes (69-73-73-215). Oregon State's Cara Freeman followed in second place (75-70-74-219), one stroke ahead of Duck junior Kate Hildahl (third, 71-70-79-229).

Senior Cathryn Bristow improved a position Tuesday to notch her 11th career top-10 finish (eighth-tie, 76-74-78-228). UO's final scorer Tuesday was senior Blair Ressler (82-DQ-82), and sophomore Monika Graf was one shot back in the final round and tied for 37th overall in the final standings (75-86-83-244).

Little's 73 was the second round that she led UO in its three-round season opener, and 15th among her 39 career collegiate rounds. Her score Tuesday also stood as the 16th of her career of 73 or better, and her second of 13 career contests that she's shot 73 or better in all three rounds, matching the feat from her victory in the Duck Invitational last March in Eugene (70-73-71-214).

“Kendra proved again today that she is a very skilled individual,” Oregon head coach Shannon Rouillard said, “especially since she couldn't play the practice round Sunday - her back was so out of alignment that she couldn't swing a club. Fortunately we somehow found a chiropractor that night who worked on her for 1 ? hours. She wasn't 100 percent yesterday, but that work on her back definitely helped along with some Advil. She proved even more so that she's a fierce competitor and hates to lose.”

UO's performance at the fall Corvallis event continued a string of individual success dating back to Bristow who won the event by one stroke in 2005 in her second freshman appearance, and was duplicated in 2007 when junior Felicia Eastick added a two-stroke victory.

“I was 3-over on the front, but knew I could get back to par if I had a birdie every three holes,” Little said. “I didn't quite get there because of a late bogey, but the conditions were a little tougher than yesterday because of the wind and the pin placements. On the other hand, the course doesn't have a lot of tall firs along the fairways to present problems. Overall, I did fairly well on the greens which were really fast, enough that I had a couple sail 8-10 feet past the hole. It was great to have Kate up there fighting for the win - anytime you can have multiple players in the top five that helps the team's chances. For an opener, it went pretty well for me, although it still seems a little like I'm a freshman. That said, I played more this summer than ever before, and that experience really helped me to learn how to score better.”

Hildahl's effort also stood out with her opening rounds of 71-70 that gave her the lead for the first time in her collegiate career heading into a final round. That latter score also tied her collegiate best from 2008, and the pair of 18-hole scores stood as the fourth and fifth of her career of par 72 or better in her 60 collegiate rounds (not to mention the first pair in the same tourney).

The Tualatin, Ore., native Hildahl came into the season after a successful summer campaign that featured wins in the Oregon Amateur and PNGA Public Links, and a third-place U.S. Women's Amateur qualifier finish that earned an invite to the national event in August at the Eugene Country Club.

“Kate had an incredible first two rounds,” Rouillard said, “and part of her continued emergence is from the tremendous amount of work that she's put into her game. It's awesome to watch her continue to become a great player. Monika had a great first round 75 ? that was huge coming from an individual who didn't get a ton of experience as a freshman last season. That's a glimpse of what she can do and she'll continue to get better as she develops her game. Among the best shots today, Cathryn had a 50-foot birdie putt on the sixth hole that was impressive. Kendra also hit her drive three feet from the pin on the par 3 17th hole ? something she said she was going to do before her shot, and then did it.“

As a team, the Ducks posted a 312 Tuesday to end at 906 (291-303-312) and finished two strokes shy of host Oregon State (first, 303-298-303-904). San Francisco followed in third place (301-304-306-911), ahead of Fresno State (fourth, 311-306-312-929) and Washington State (fifth, 312-293-330-935).

Other women's teams in the field included Nevada (sixth, 306-312-322-940), Sacramento State (seventh, 302-324-327-953), Boise State (eighth, 314-316-328-957), Portland (ninth, 316-319-327-962) and Idaho (10th, 312-317-337-966).

“We made it look easy in Monday's first round with our 291,” Rouillard said, “and that was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the course beat us up a little today. The players wanted to win, and they kind of felt like they let it slip away, but it's early in the season. We're not happy that it happened, but we'll learn from our mistakes and grow from it. I told them that we have to put ourselves in position. From there, sometimes we'll have successes and other times we won't, but we have to increase our chances.”

At the completion of the event, the Duck women's score was added to the UO men's tally for a combined team scoring category, and Oregon tied for second place at 1766 with San Francisco, nine strokes behind host Oregon State (first, 1757). Other combined men's and women's team scores follow: Nevada (fourth, 1793), Washington State (fifth, 1794), Fresno State (sixth, 1795), Portland (seventh, 1823), Boise State (eighth, 1833), Idaho (ninth, 1842) and Sacramento State (10th, 1848).

For the UO men in Tuesday's final round, freshmen Eugene Wong and Robbie Ziegler tied for fourth individually with a 3-under 213 to lead the squad to a fifth-place team finish. The Oregon men shot a combined 1-over 289 final round and finished with a 4-under 860 overall. Oregon State also won the men's team title by two strokes over Nevada in a playoff, after the two teams were tied at 853 after 72 holes. San Francisco was third at 855 with Washington State fourth at 859. After the Ducks, Portland was sixth at 861, followed by Fresno State with 866, Boise State and Idaho tied for eighth at 876 and Sacramento State 10th at 895. OSU's Diego Velasquez won men's medalist honors with his 8-under 208 after a final round 68.

Looking ahead, the UO women have a week off before traveling to the Washington-hosted Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational at Sahalee Golf Course in Sammamish, Wash., Monday-Wednesday, October 6-8. More event information is available at the www.GoHuskies.com athletic department website.

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