Duke Hangs On To Win Third Straight National Title

Blue Devils joins Arizona State as only teams to win three in a row

May 25, 2007

By Ryan Powell

Special to CSTV.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Top-ranked Duke was still in pursuit mode Friday despite taking an eight-shot lead into the final round of the Division I Women's Golf National Championships. The Blue Devils were chasing a piece of NCAA history on LPGA International's Legends Course, while the rest of the 24-team field was trying to prevent the two-time defending champions from achieving that historic feat - the rarest of three-peats.

Duke chased down its biggest prize and prevented the rest of the field from ruining a special accomplishment as Anna Grzebien posted her third-consecutive round of par or better after an opening-round 80.

Grzebien's efforts helped lead the Blue Devils to their third consecutive triumph at the national tournament. Duke joins Arizona State as the only teams in NCAA Division I women's golf history to win three consecutive team crowns.

"It feels really good," Duke head coach Dan Brooks said. "This team, we were ranked second for a lot of the year and not that we pay a lot of attention to that - all that tells you is there was a lot of parity in this particular year. There were some really good teams."

Grzebien shot a 70 (-2) and Duke held off playing partners Purdue and UCLA to post a 15-shot victory over the Boilermakers, who edged the Bruins for second by a stroke. The 15-shot margin was the largest for the Blue Devils in their three-year title run and was also the largest of the five national championships Duke has won under Brooks.

"I wanted to end my career on a high note," Grzebien said after closing out her final three rounds of the tournament at four-under par. "After the first day, I was not a happy camper and that fired me up more. I just dug my heels in and wanted to go out with a team championship. And when you come to this tournament, you have to come to play. If you waste too many shots, people will come up and take it away from you. I just took it one shot at a time and it worked out."

Grzebien worked her way up to sixth after starting round two in a tie for 95th. She was joined in the top 10 by a pair of Blue Devil teammates. Sophomore Amanda Blumenherst, the top-ranked player in the women's collegiate game, carded an even-par 72 in the final round to finish fourth with a three-day total of 289 (+1). Classmate Jennie Lee was five shots behind Blumenherst to take seventh (294, +5).

"You don't want to give Anna a reason to start burning inside and that is what that 80 did," Brooks said of his senior captain. "She shot the 80, fortunately the way they set college golf up, we get to throw it out and who knows that 80 might have almost been a positive because the burn that came from that propelled her to do the rest of it."

The race for medalist honors actually provided the most drama during the final day as Arkansas senior Stacy Lewis erased a six-shot deficit to take the top spot among the individuals. Lewis made five-consecutive birdies to open her back nine and that effort all but sealed the victory for the Razorback senior. Lewis had seven birdies in her final 18 holes.

"She was really shooting darts on the front side and had a lot of birdie opportunities," Arkansas head coach Kelley Hester said. "She did not make very many of them. She could have been eight or nine under at the turn, but the course gave her a few back on the backside. She had a chip in and made a few longer putts."

Lewis ended up with a four-shot victory after carding a 66 (-6) for a four-round total of 282 (-6). Her 66 equaled the career-best round she set at last year's national championship. Third-round leader Christel Boeljon of Purdue faltered in the final round, carding a 76 (+4), but managed to share second place with USC's Paola Moreno and lead the tournament with 18 birdies.

Boeljon, who finished at 286 (-2), fired a pair of 69's in rounds two and three respectively, to lead the Boilermakers to their best finish in nine trips to the national championships. Purdue's previous best effort was a pair of ninth-place finishes in 2000 and 2006. UCLA's third-place finish was their best since finishing runner-up to the Blue Devils in 2005. The Bruins were followed by a pair of Pac-10 foes in the top five as USC took fourth and Stanford placed fifth.