March 9, 2010

By Weston Ackerman
Athletic Media Relations

SAN JOSE, Calif.- The Colorado State women's golf team struggled again in the short game Tuesday at the Juli Inkster Spartan Invitational, falling to 15th in the final standings of team play.

The news wasn't all bad, though, as the team's younger players got a lot of experience in harsh conditions and the older members demonstrated the leadership that every coach hopes for from their seniors.

"Our two sophomores (Brianna Espinoza and Melissa Martin) and one freshman (Emily Roering) got some really good experience on a tough golf course in tough weather conditions," Head Coach Angie Hopkins said. "It was one of those things where what could go wrong did go wrong but Kasey (Claussen) showed some real leadership, keeping everyone's morale up when we were all pretty disappointed."

Claussen, a senior from Fort Collins, led the Rams on the scoreboard, too, posting a final-round 78 (+6). The score put her at 234 (+18) for the tournament, good for a 38th-place tie in the field of 84. Senior Natalie Stone finished in a tie for 48th place with a final-round 79 (+6) and an overall 236 (+20). Martin and Roering shot 81 and 82 in the final round, respectively, to finish at 243, and Espinoza rounded out the Rams' scorecard with a tournament-tally of 246.

California came back from a third-place place finish after the first day to finish in first with a team score of 899 (+35) and UC Davis maintained their position in second place by shooting a final-round 300 to finish at 901. On the individual side, Cristina Corpus of San Jose State shot 217 (+1) over three rounds to finish in first place.

While they left disappointed, they also left with plenty to build on.

 "This was our first real tournament of the season and we need to go back and work on putting and stuff to get ready for next week," Hopkins said.

The Rams will be back in action on Monday at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii.