WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - After battling weather delays, tough conditions and suspended play on the first two days of the NCAA Division III Championships, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf surged up from 11th place into a tie for fourth on Thursday's third round, heading into tomorrow's final round at the Kingsmill Resort.
Emory has a big lead through 54 holes at +11, 13 shots ahead of second-place Carnegie Mellon, which shot -5 as a team on Thursday to lower its score to +24. Middlebury is third place at +31, with George Fox and CMS tied for fourth at +36. Wellesley is at +39 in sixth, and Redlands is in seventh at +40.
Esther Lee shot a 71 (-1) on Thursday, ending up in the red after opening her shotgun start on the par-5 ninth hole with an eagle.
Christine Yu and
Stella Cheng added even-par 72s on Thursday, while
Jessie Kong added a 74. Yu is at +5 for the tournament, in a tie for 12th, while Cheng and Lee are at +9, tied for 26th.
The first round was suspended due to darkness after heavy rains resulted in long delays and made conditions very difficult. By the time the first round finished on Wednesday morning, CMS stood in 16th place, below the 36-hole cutline of the top 15 teams advancing. After a +28 on its first round, the Athenas settled in and finished their second round Thursday morning at +7, moving up five spots to 11th to safely make the cut.
On Thursday, though, CMS surged up into the top four with a +1 as a team, tying Emory for the second-best round of the day behind Carnegie Mellon. The Athenas are now in a solid position to challenge for one of the top four spots, which receive NCAA trophies, in the final round on Friday, although, like everyone else in the field, they will need Emory to come back to the pack in order to challenge for the championship one.
Yu started the day with two straight birdies on the eighth and ninth on her way to an even-par 72. After opening with her eagle, Lee stood at -3 after her first nine holes, but then had to bounce back from a short rough patch with back-to-back birdies on No. 2 and No. 3 to finish strong. Cheng had three birdies on hir first eight holes, and then closed with nine straight pars. Kong also had an important role settling in after a slow start to shoot -1 over her last 13 holes, with 12 pars and a birdie to finish with a 74.
The fourth and final round will get underway tomorrow morning, as the Athenas will try to earn their seventh straight top-10 finish, a stretch which includes the 2018 national title and a third-place finish two years ago.
