April 3, 2012

Shepherd earns first all-tournament honor, Tech places sixth at Belmont Invitational

Sophomore Amber Shepherd earned her first career all-tournament honor with a fifth place individual showing and the Tennessee Tech women's golf team finished sixth in the Belmont Invitational Tuesday at Old Hickory Country Club.

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OLD HICKORY, Tenn. -- Sophomore Amber Shepherd was rewarded with her first career all-tournament honor Tuesday for her fifth place finish at the Belmont Women's Invitational at the Old Hickory Country Club. The short-handed Tennessee Tech women's golf team placed sixth overall.

Shepherd, who carded a career-best round of 72 on Monday carded an 80 on Tuesday and it was enough to keep the Caryville, Tenn., native in the top five for the tournament which included 45 individual players.

One player who was not on the course Tuesday was Tech junior Katherine Bell, who withdrew due to illness, leaving first-year coach Polk Brown with just four players in action. All three of Tech's remaining players saw their scores improve on the second day and the Golden Eagles trimmed 15 shots from Monday's total. It pulled the Golden Eagles close to the teams above them in the standings, missing fifth place by a single shot.

Host Belmont, which led after day one, shot a 312 team score Tuesday to capture the team trophy in the seven-team event with a 616. Evansville finished in second place at 633, followed by UAB (634), Austin Peay (642), Lipscomb (645), Tech (646) and Trevecca Nazarene (686).

UAB's Caitlin Watts won individual medalist honors as she shot a 75 Tuesday to finish the tournament with a 36-hole score of 149. Belmont's Jennifer Newman, who had the first-day lead, placed second along with Cathy Doyle of Evansville at 150. Savanna Schubert of Lipscomb was fourth at 151, while Shepherd and Tala Mumford of Austin Peay tied for fifth at 152. Mumford was aided by a hole-in-one on the second hole.

Sophomore Brandy VanEtten had Tech's best round Tuesday with a 75, finishing tied for 20th place at 163. Sophomore Katy Beth Glover was also tied for 20th place, finished strong Monday with a 79 for her 163 total. Junior Amanda Randolph tied for 29th place, wrapping up with an 82 Tuesday for a 168 total.

Tech's next tournament will be the Samford Intercollegiate, Monday and Tuesday, to be played at Limestone Springs Golf Course in Birmingham. It's the final outing of the year for the Golden Eagles before the Ohio Valley Conference championships, April 22-24.

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Tech women's golf team competes at the 2012 Belmont Invitational at Old Hickory Country Club

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