By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Baylor women’s golf finished tied for third in the Veritex Bank Texas Showdown on Tuesday after a strong showing on day one, which helped the Bears find poll position and win the stroke-play portion. The Bears finished match-play with a 5-1 loss to SMU in Tuesday’s morning session and followed that up with a 2.5-2.5 tie against UCF at the Dallas Athletic Club in Dallas.
Junior Sera Hasegawa led the Bears, improving to 11-1 at Baylor in match play. She was the only player wearing green and gold to win both of her matches. Hasegawa never trailed, taking the point against SMU, who won the tournament after a dominant 4-0-1 win over Maryland in the championship match at 5&4. The Mustangs followed that with a decisive 3&2 win over the Knights.
“It would have definitely been nice to get the match-play win today along with the stroke-play win yesterday, but as a team, I think we are building confidence and beginning to show how great we can be,” associate head coach Carly Ludwig said. “We saw a fantastic performance from Sera today, again going undefeated in match play.”
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Senior Rosie Belsham was penciled in the one spot, but she dropped her semifinals match against SMU 2-up. Belsham bounced back winning 5&4 against UCF, highlighted by multiple back-to-back hole wins.
Sophomore Silje Ohma (5&4) and junior BaiMai Seema (6&5) each dropped their morning matches but battled throughout. Seema found herself in a tie against the Knights after trading birdies up and down the course, while Ohma dropped her afternoon match 1-up despite taking a lead into the final-9.
Freshmen Yoonjeong Huh (3&2) and Ashleen Kaur (4&3) picked up five combined hole wins against SMU but came up short. Kaur also fell 3&1 in the afternoon, as she trialed by two strokes following the first two holes.
“We had a lot of fun this afternoon against a new Big 12 member in UCF, seeing a lot of birdies,” Ludwig said. “I think Silje and BaiMai had three birdies each in the first seven holes and were still tied. That shows how competitive these matches were; it was great to see the fight. We are looking forward to taking this momentum into the postseason.”
The Bears will be back in action April 18-20 for the Big 12 Championship at the Clubs at Houston Oaks in Hockley.
