University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
SDSU Farms Invitational
Tennessee Sweeps New Mexico at SDSU Farms
March 23, 2015 | Women's Golf
RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. -- The No. 11 Tennessee women's golf team got off to a strong start at its first match-play event of the season, sweeping its way past New Mexico 5-0 at the SDSU Farms Invite, hosted by San Diego State University at The Farms Golf Club (par 72, 6,237 yards).
A 16-team match play tournament, the No. 2 seeded Lady Vols were the only squad in attendance to go unbeaten on the day as all five UT golfers were victorious over their UNM counterparts.
Freshman Anna Newell turned in one of the most dominant performances of the day, winning her match against New Mexico's Alexandra Moisand by a score of 7 and 6. Newell did not drop a single hole on the round, rattling off eight straight pars before a birdie on the par-5 eighteenth put her 6-up at the turn. Another win on the first hole followed by halves on two and three settled the victory for Newell with six holes still to play in regulation.
Emmie Pietila got things rolling for the Lady Vols, opening up the competition with a win over the Lobos' Ingrid Gutierrez. With things all square after 15 holes of competition, Pietila notched back-to-back pars to best her opponents' pair of bogies to seal the match at 2 and 1.
Like teammate Newell, Lucia Polo did not drop a single hole to her opponent as she cruised to a 4 and 3 win behind two birdies and 11 pars through 15 holes on the day.
Hannah Pietila and AJ Newell each won their respective matches by counts of 4 and 2 to wrap up the Tennessee sweep. Newell turned in a team-high six birdies en route to her victory -- including a birdie-two on the par-3 second. Meanwhile, Pietila enjoyed a lead of as many as five holes over the Lobos' Katerina Jaeger before closing things out with two holes to play after a par on the par-4 seventh.
With the win, Tennessee advances to the winner's bracket of the three-day, four-round match play tournament. Seeded second, the Lady Vols will play two rounds on Tuesday, opening with seventh-seeded California, which advanced with a 3-2 win over Kansas on Monday.
Live scoring throughout the tournament will be available at Birdiefire.com.
For continued coverage of Tennessee women's golf, follow the team on Twitter @LadyVol_Golf, at Facebook.com/LadyVolGolf or visit UTSports.com.
