BGSU Women’s Golf Takes Fifth at Match Play Challenge Event

Tuesday, February 9

Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

All Day

Bowling Green State University

Women's Mid-American Match Play Challenge

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

February 09, 2016 | Women's Golf

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Final Results: Golfstat.com (HTML)
Final Results: Tournament Bracket (PDF)

Lakewood Ranch, Fla. – The Bowling Green State University women's golf team posted a win over Oakland University and then played Florida Gulf Coast University to a draw on day two of play Tuesday to finish the two-day match play event at 2-0-2 and in fifth-place overall at the 2016 Women's Mid-American Match Play Challenge on the par 72, 6,068-yards Royal Lakes Golf Course at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

"This was an outstanding four rounds of golf in two days for us. Overall we played with the kind of determination and toughness it takes to compete with the best," stated head coach Stephanie Young. "We won three matches and tied in one only to lose in a scorecard playoff. We're looking forward to continuing to work hard and look forward to heading to Arizona."

In the morning match, the Falcons held off the Oakland Grizzlies for a 3-2 win to advance to the fifth-place match in the afternoon session.

The Falcons fell behind early in the team match at 1-0 with a loss at the No. 5 spot, but picked up wins from Erin Fahey and Lily Bartell at the No. 4 and No. 3 positions to take a 2-1 match lead over Oakland.

After an OU win at the No. 2 flight tied the match up at 2-2, Hannah Lewis earned a hard fought 2&1 win at the No. 1 spot to give the Falcons a 3-2 team win.

Fahey continued her strong play with a 5&3 win over Maddie Zack of Oakland at the No. 4 position. The freshman, who went 2-0 on day one of the match play challenge on Monday, went back and forth with Zack trading wins over holes No. 10, 11, 12 and 13 to put the match at all square four holes in. Fahey was able to earn wins on holes No. 15 and No. 17 to take a 2-up lead through nine holes of play.

On the front nine, Fahey recorded wins at holes 1, 3 and 5 before taking the victory on hole No. 6 to end the match after just 15 holes of play with the 5&3 win.

With the team match tied at 1-1, Bartell gave the Falcons the match lead with a 1-up win at the No. 3 spot in the lineup. The senior fell 1-down to Alyssa Albright of Oakland with a loss at No. 11, but bounced back to put the match back at all square with a win on hole No. 13.

Bartell then overcame a two hole deficit after eight holes of play to pick up the win at No. 18, and then followed with wins on the front nine at No. 3 and No. 5 to take a 1-up lead. However, Albright was able to put the match back at all square with a win on hole No. 7 to make the match interesting with just two holes to play.

The Falcon senior bested Albright on hole No. 8 to go back in front at 1-up and then matched her opponent on the final hole to hold on for the 1-up win.

Following a win by the Grizzlies at the No. 2 spot to knot the team match score back up at 2-2, Lewis finished her head-to-head match out strong to record a 2&1 win and give the Falcons the 3-2 match victory.

Lewis fell behind by one hole with a loss at hole No. 12, but rebounded to take the hole on No. 15 to put the match at all square once again. After matching scores over the next six holes, Lewis registered a win on hole No. 4 to go 1-up on Elle Nichols of Oakland.

The senior then put the match away with a win at No. 7 and a tie at No. 8 to secure the 2& 1 win.

In the fifth-place match in the afternoon session, the Falcons played FGCU to a 2-2-1 draw, but picked up the fifth-place finish by way of a tiebreaker in margin of victory with a 4&3 win at No. 3 by Bartell.

BGSU fell behind early in the match versus the FGCU Eagles with a tough 1-down loss at the No. 5 spot by Fran Rodriguez and then saw Fahey go all 18 holes in her contest versus Megan Blonien at the No. 4 position to finish the match all square.

The Falcons' Bartell then tied the team match score up at 1-1 with a 4&3 win at the No. 3 flight, as she jumped out to a 1-up lead with a win on hole No. 12 and then picked up wins on holes 14 and 15 to take a 3-up lead on Mei Khuan Yong of FGCU.

After Yong took holes No. 17 and 18 to cut Bartell's lead back to 1-up, the senior won the hole on No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 to roll to the 4&3 win over just 15 holes of play.

Junior Mikayla Baer added a win for the Falcons at the No. 2 spot, defeating Sara Detlefsen 2&1 in the head-to-head match. Baer fell behind early after dropping the first two holes on No. 10 and No. 11, but bounced back to win at hole No. 12 and at No. 14 to put the match back at all square.

Baer then took the lead at 1-up with a win on hole No. 15 and refused to look back leading for the rest of the way en route to her 2&1 win.

However, FGCU was able to tie the match up with a 4&2 win by Madison Easterbrook at the No. 1 position to send the match to a 2-2-1 draw.

Yet the margin of victory tiebreaker, which allowed Eastern Michigan to slip past the Falcons on day one, aided BGSU on Tuesday to give the Falcons the fifth-place finish.

Kent State went on to win the match play event by defeating Eastern Michigan 4-1 in the championship match. Behind EMU, who was the runner-up, was Northern Illinois who took third-place overall with a 3-1-1 win over Akron.

The Falcons will return to the links for competition on Feb. 26-28 at the 2016 Rio Verde Invitational hosted by Western Michigan at the Rio Verde Country Club in Rio Verde, Arizona.

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Consolation Bracket – No. 7 BGSU defeats No. 9 Oakland – 3-2
Hannah Lewis (BGSU) def. Elle Nichols (OU) – 2&1
Morgan Smith (OU) def. Mikayla Baer (BGSU) – 2-up
Lily Bartell (BGSU) def. Alyssa Albright (OU) – 1-up
Erin Fahey (BGSU) def. Maddie Zack (OU) – 5&3
Fiona Schmidt (OU) def. Fran Rodriguez (BGSU) – 6&5

Fifth-Place Match – No. 7 BGSU draws with No. 6 FGCU – 2-2-1 (won on tiebreaker)
Madison Easterbrook (FGCU) def. Hannah Lewis (BGSU) – 4&2
Mikayla Baer (BGSU) def. Sara Detlefsen (FGCU) – 2&1
Lily Bartell (BGSU) def. Mei Khuan Yong (FGCU) – 4&3
Erin Fahey (BGSU) ties Megan Blonien (FGCU) – All Square
Madeline Marck-Sherk (FGCU) def. Fran Rodriguez (BGSU) – 1-up