Montana
Big Sky Conference Championship
Griz finish fifth at Big Sky golf championship
4/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Golf
The Montana women's golf team shot a 304 Tuesday and moved up one spot to fifth place in the final standings at the Big Sky Conference championship at Chandler, Ariz. The Grizzlies were in sixth place after both Sunday's and Monday's rounds at the Ocotillo Golf Resort.
Sophomore Barbora Bakova (74-72-77--223) tied for fourth, Montana's best individual finish since Ashli Helstrom placed fourth in 2011.
It was the tightest top-five finish in tournament history, with just a dozen shots separating first-place Northern Arizona (301-303-297--901) and the fifth-place Grizzlies (307-302-304--913), who had their third-lowest three-round total in championship history.
Four teams held the lead at different points Tuesday, but it was the Lumberjacks who led when it mattered.
Playing in the next-to-last groupings with Montana and Eastern Washington, Northern Arizona closed with a 297 on Tuesday, then waited as Sacramento State (298-305-300--903), Idaho (301-301-302--904) and Southern Utah (299-299-314--912) finished their rounds.
None was able to match the Lumberjacks, who won their eighth Big Sky championship, their second in three years.
Portland State's A Ram Choi (74-71-71--216) claimed medalist honors for the second straight year.
Montana (307-302-304--913), which has finished in either fourth or fifth place eight times in the nine years since winning the program's only championship in 2006, was steady once again, with rounds of 307, 302 and 304, but not quite good enough to challenge for the trophy.
"The competition is getting tighter in the Big Sky and scores are getting better," Stephens said. "To win we were going to have to play some great golf. We played good golf and put together three solid rounds, but we didn't play great golf, so we didn't quite get where we wanted to.
"But I'm proud of my girls. They really have worked hard for me this year. They did all that I asked them to do."
Senior Tara Green (80-75-74-229) closed with a 74, the team's best round of the day, to tie for 19th, her second career top-20 finish. She played her cleanest round of the tournament, with a birdie, three bogeys and 14 pars.
Green finishes her career with a four-year scoring average of 76.85, the best average in program history by nearly a stroke.
Junior Hayley Bingham (77-78-76--231) tied for 23rd, and sophomores Alexa Schendelman (77-84-77--238) and Amanda Kahn (79-77-82--238) tied for 38th.
"There were probably two things this week that hurt us the most," said Stephens. "First, we needed to hit more greens. That was something we struggled with all three days.
"And then our putting was not what it needed to be. We missed some short putts, and you have to make those conversions to birdie or the up-and-down pars. We missed quite a few of those."
Montana will have to wait 52 weeks to get another shot at winning the Big Sky Conference title, but statistical indicators all point to a program on the rise in Stephens' second year at the helm.
The Grizzlies reduced their team scoring average from 310.7 a year ago to 305.8 this year, all seven players had season scoring averages in the 70s, and all six of the non-freshmen had better averages than they did the previous season.
"We're moving in the right direction. All of my girls' scoring averages have dropped from last year, so the work that we're doing is paying off. We just need to keep doing what we're doing," said Stephens.
Players Mentioned
