Oct. 23, 2001

CALHOUN, La. -- Samford's women's golf team shot a two-round total of 638 and finished 12th of 24 at the Great Smokies Intercollegiate golf tournament.

Tuesday's 312 was a 14-stroke improvement over the first-round 326 for Samford, as the Bulldogs moved up three spots from 15th to 12th overall. Tara Clayton was solid for the Bulldogs, shooting 78-74 for a 152 and a 12-place finish. The Top 20 finish is Clayton's second in three tournaments.

Tricia Harlow followed Clayton with a 160 (82-78) in 49th position. Freshman Kelly Villareal finished with a 163, Courtney Sanders shot 164 and Sara Gossum finished with a 176.

"We are pleased with our finish in a field that features some very good teams," said Samford Head Coach Ian Thompson." I thought we could have put ourselves in a better position on Monday, and finished a little stronger in the final round, but Tara Clayton was once again our steady leader. I'm encouraged that we moved up a few spots today and we should take that momentum into next week's final round of the fall season."

Samford finished five strokes out of the tournament's Top 10. Elon won the team title with a 612, followed by Coastal Carolina (613), East Tennessee State (614), Murray State (619), Austin Peay State (621), Western Carolina (624), Eastern Illinois (631), Methodist College (632), South Alabama (632) and Youngstown State (633) in the Top 10.

Western Kentucky (637) was just ahead of Samford (638). The remainder of the field included Eastern Kentucky (639), Lipscomb (648), Loyola (650), Radford (653), Mercer (655), Evansville (657), Belmont (658), Gardner-Webb (663), Dayton (666), Tennessee Tech (674), Mobile (682) and Hampton (691).

Samford Final Results

T-12th Tara Clayton (78-74=152)

T-49th Tricia Harlow (82-78=160)

T-64th Kelly Villareal (83-80=163)

T-68th Courtney Sanders (84-80=164)

T-104th Sara Gossum (83-93=176)