Lady Vikings Finish Ninth at Rome News-Tribune Invitational

Lee rallied from a six-stroke deficit after the first round to win the tournament by nine strokes over second-place Shorter.  The Lady Flames, coached by former Berry golfers John Maupin and Jayne Curtis-Maupin, shot the day's best round of 301 to finish at 305-301-605 overall.  Shorter finished at 298-316-614 to finish second.

 

Berry was led by Caysie Holley and Nikki Cline.  Holley claimed the Lady Vikings' top overall score at 83-87-170 to finish tied for 31st.  Cline fired Berry's best score Tuesday, an 85 that gave her a 178 total after shaving off eight strokes from her round of 93 Monday.  Cline tied for 40th.

 

Eftihia Kountakis finished 52nd at 93-97-190, one place ahead of teammate Morgan Johnston, who shot 99-93-192.  Like Johnston, Kay Casto also cut six strokes off her score from the previous round, finishing 58th with a score of 108-102-210. 

 

After Lee and Shorter, West Georgia (318-308-626), Birmingham-Southern (329-315-644) and University of the Cumberlands (320-328-648) rounded out the top five.

 

Young Harris moved up two spots Tuesday to finish sixth after back-to-back rounds of 339 gave the Mountain Lions a 36-hole score of 678.  YHC was followed in the standings by Huntingdon (330-352-682), Oglethorpe (335-353-688), Berry, Truett-McConnell (388-397-785) and Reinhardt (410-425-835).

 

Lee's Geandra Almeida won the individual medal after shooting rounds of 73 and 69, respectively, to finish at 142 overall, four strokes ahead of Shorter's Greta Lange, who shot 69-77-146.

 

Berry is scheduled to return to action March 18-20 at the Jekyll Island Invitational.