Carrie Leary
By Ben Peters
Daily Bruin Contributor
On the same day that the Pac-10 announced Carrie Leary as its
Conference Coach of the Year and bestowed Newcomer of the Year
honors on freshman Yvonne Choe, the No. 16 UCLA women’s golf
team finished strongly in the Pac-10 Championship in Walla Walla,
Wash. securing a second place standing.
“A great day, very grueling,” said Leary.
“There was a lot of pressure and we thought we had a shot to
win and played a solid round, but unfortunately we were unable to
pull it out. We were really focused and worked extremely
hard.”
After jumping ahead of USC into second on day two, the Bruins
posted a final day score of 299, bringing their three-day total to
899. Unfortunately, Arizona’s team, featuring No. 1 player in
the country Lorena Ochoa, pulled away on day three scoring a 294
giving them a comfortable eight shot victory, their third title in
a row, and fifth in the last six years.
Freshman sensation Choe seized the individual tournament lead
after the second day proving her merit even after award votes had
been tabulated. However, she shot a four-over par 76 on the final
day dropping to a still impressive tie for fourth.
Other notable Bruins on the leaderboard include sophomore Gina
Umeck whose final round two-under 70 tied her for ninth and made
her one of only three golfers to post rounds below par on
Wednesday, senior Alicia Um tying for 12th after a final round of
even par 72, sophomore and freshman Melissa Martin and Kristin
Thompson tying for 22nd, and freshman Charlotte Mayorkas coming in
26th.
As for individual tournament honors, Arizona State’s Jimin
Kang surprised Ochoa seizing the title by one stroke over her and
by two over USC’s Mikaela Pramlid.
Even with the Bruins impressive finish, the biggest news of the
day had to be Coach Leary’s Pac-10 Coach of the Year
Award.
Leary expressed surprise about receiving the honor, and
emphasized how much the award means to her.
“Yeah, I was pretty surprised,” she said. “It
means a lot to me personally because it was voted by my peers and
shows how I have really broke into the profession.”
In only her third year with the team, the Bruins vastly improved
this year even as they rely on a relatively young squad. The
second-place finish was the team’s best since 1996 and
surprising considering their seventh-place finish the previous
year.
Of course, a good deal of responsibility for the improvement is
due to Choe, who also received second-team Pac-10 honors. Her year
included placing in the top 10 twice and among the top 20 four
times. Finding herself playing with Ochoa for the first time and
even paired with her on the final day with 100 spectators following
the group, Choe no doubt benefited from the experience of going
toe-to-toe on the final day against top competition.
The Bruins continue their positive year with the NCAA Regional
Championships May 9.
Leary summed up her feelings on the day, tournament and
awards.
“Overall, it was a great day and a team effort no
doubt,” she said.