AUGUSTA, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University women's golf team fell short in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament Finals on Sunday, April 23. The four-seeded Cardinals found themselves in a dogfight down to the last hole with the two-seeded, Ferris State University Bulldogs. SVSU would win two of the five matches, falling one point short of their storybook ending.
This was the first time in program history that the women's team has made it to the conference championship round. Senior captain, Emily O'Brien had this to say about the milestone, "We fought really hard to get here, when maybe no one else thought we could." O'Brien, commonly referred to as "O.B." on the team also added her admiration for teammates stepping up during the tournament, "I am so proud of this team. I'm proud of Meg [Megan Kozlowski], for stepping in and filling her role. I am really proud of my teammates hanging in there throughout the weekend."
Throughout the day, the Cardinals and Bulldogs battled back and forth. Trading leads at least one time in four of the five matches. Megan Kozlowski was the only player to lead wire-to-wire on the final day carding a 78 and winning her match by 4 strokes. Brook Herbstreit fought through a fractured finger for the win in her match making par on the final hole to win by one stroke shooting 74. Emily O'Brien fell one stroke short shooting 78 after making birdie on her final hole to put the pressure on the Bulldogs. Rachael Krieger battled through two lead changes in her round and would shoot 77 to her Bulldog counterpart's 73. With the score tied at 2-2 coming into the final hole, Megan Thiravong found the green in regulation and her opponent in the greenside bunker. Thiravong would make birdie with a right-to-left breaking 12 foot putt. Ferris State got out of the bunker but found themselves with a tough chip across the green for par. The ensuing chip would land about 10 feet from the hole with both teams anxiously awaiting greenside. Ferris State buried the putt for the victory, ending the match.
Despite the loss, Coach Matt Pumford shined a light on how proud he was of his team, "I am very proud of our girls and the way they fought. This championship match was pretty even through most of the day. It just came down to a couple bounces here and there and some missed or made putts"
UP NEXT
The team now awaits the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, May. The top 15 squads in the east region will play on May 8-10 on Springfield, Illinois.
