Pride women's golf earns more hardware at fall home tournament

GALENA, Ill. - For the second time in as many events, the Clarke University women's golf team earned a tournament victory with a first place finish at the Clarke Fall Invite on Monday and Tuesday at the Eagle Ridge South Course as the Pride were also able to play as a full roster for the first time this season, with the B lineup finishing in fifth place.

CU's 676 team score was able to beat runner-up Olivet Nazarene University by 12 strokes as the round one advantage for the Pride turned out to make the difference after both the Pride and Tigers shot team scores of 334 on Tuesday but Clarke outshot ONU 342 to 354 on Monday.

Also for the second-straight tournament, freshman Amalia Ortega took home the individual championship as she earned a seven-stroke victory over the runner-up Taylor Ice from ONU with Ortega's final score coming in at 160 after shooting a 77 on Monday and battling through an 83 on Tuesday on tough South Course that only saw the women's competitors produce two scores under 80 in Ortega's 77 on Monday and Ice's 79 on Tuesday.

Ortega now is 2-for-3 in first place finishes to start her collegiate career after producing her first collegiate win at The Meadows during the Loras Fall Invite where she also broke the 36-hole school record for one of the stronger first impressions from a Clarke student-athlete in recent memory.

Clarke was able to withstand Olivet Nazarene's second and third place individual finishes by producing the individuals in fourth, fifth, and sixth place after Holly Elliott, Rose Halle, and Rose McCartney had those placements respectively with Elliott finishing at 86 on Monday and 83 on Tuesday for a total of 169, Halle scored matching rounds of 86 for a 172 total score, and McCartney improved by 11 strokes from Monday to Tuesday to go 93 then 82 for a 175.

The fifth woman in the Pride varsity lineup was Sydney Minyen after she also improved a bit from day one to day two going 99 then 92 for a 191 with the B golfers consisting of Jessi Wagner (102-111=213), Aubree Hoyle (106-11=217), Maya England (117-110=227), Caley McKinney (113-123=236), and Irene Metaxas (112-125=237).

Clarke women's golf will be back in competition play in two weeks when they head to Silvis, Ill. to play at TPC Deere Run for the Statesmen Invitational hosted by William Penn University on Oct. 13-14.