Sasaki Takes Home Individual Crown at Pac-12 Preview

Wednesday, November 6

Kailua Kona, HI

All Day

University of Washington

Pac-12 Preview

November 06, 2019 | Women's Golf

Results

KAILUA KONA, Hawaii – University of Washington junior Rino Sasaki took home the first collegiate individual title of her career on Tuesday as she won the 2019 Pac-12 Preview with a 9-under 210 (70-70-70) hosted at Nanea Golf Club in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. The Huskies as a team finished eighth overall with an 18-over 294 (300-298-296) in their final tournament of the fall season.

Sasaki is the second Husky to take home an individual title this year as senior Karen Miaymoto won the season-opening Cougar Cup back in September.

"We are so excited for Rino this week," said head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. "She has been working super hard on getting healthy the past few weeks and hasn't really practiced the way she's used to. She was able to really trust her process, remaining calm and present all week. This course requires a lot of patience and she definitely displayed that this week. We now go into the offseason knowing what we need to work on and I am confident our student-athletes will dig in and get after it."

Sasaki was very steady all week posting scores of 70 in each of the tournament's three rounds. She finished with a 13 birdies and a team-best 37 pars. During her final round on Tuesday, the junior opened with a birdie on her third hole but went back to even par on her seventh. Wasting no time, Sasaki birdied the next and went on to make par with two more birdies closing the day at 3-under. It is the first individual win for the junior as her previous best finish was a second-place showing at the 2019 NCAA Cle Elum Regional.

Senior Alice Duan was just outside of the top 25 as she finished with a 5-over 224, with her best round coming on Tuesday. Duan went even-par, 6-over then closed with a 1-under to move six spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 28^th. Her final 18 holes were nearly perfect as she posted two birdies to just one blemish.

Finishing in a tie for 40^th was freshman Winnie Ng, who carded a 10-over 229 (78-74-77), while senior Karen Miyamoto tied for 45^th at 13-over 232 (79-76-77). To close out the UW contingent was sophomore Martha Lewis as she placed tied for 54^th with a 19-over 238 (80-78-80).

This was the last tournament of the fall campaign for the Dawgs as they will now wait to start up back up in the spring with the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, Feb. 9-11 in Palos Verdes, Calif.