Ryals Brings Home Top 5 Finish And All-SBC Honors
Senior Ashleigh Ryals shot 5-over par 77 in the final round of the SBC Championships to earn a top-5 finish and All-Sun Belt Conference honors. | Photo: usajaguars.com
Jaguar senior Ashleigh Ryals shot a 5-over 77 in the final round of the Sun Belt Conference Championship at Steelwood Country Club to earn a top-5 finish and All-Sun Belt Conference Honors on Wednesday.
Ryals 77 gave her a 9-over total of 225 to finish tied for fifth place. The front nine saw her shoot a 4-over 40 before a 1-over card for the back nine.
Elisa Axelsen shot the lowest round for a Jaguar on Wednesday with a 3-over 75. She played the front nine at 3-over and then shot even-par on the back nine to finish tied for 12th in the final standings.
Ingrid Hagen shot a 6-over 78 to finish tied for 19th which also tied fellow Jaguar Caroline Beebe. Cariane Wright shot an 8-over 80 to finish 22nd in her first career SBC Championship.
The Jags as a team finished third after a third-round total of 308 for a three-day total of 922.
Troy’s Fatima Fern Cano finished first in the individual with a +5. Troy also took home the team win.
Troy (896, +32)
Texas State (902, +38)
South Alabama (922, +58)
Arkansas Little Rock (927, +63)
Georgia State (935, +71)
Louisiana Monroe (942, +78)
Arkansas State (955, +91)
Western Kentucky (968, +104)
Ryals Assumes Lead After Second Round At SBC Championships
Senior Ashleigh Ryals shot 3-over par 75 in the second round of the SBC Championships to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the SBC Championships on Wednesday. | Photo: usajaguars.com
South Alabama’s Ashleigh Ryals took over the lead in the Sun Belt Conference Championships on Tuesday after shooting a 3-over par 75 at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Alabama.
The senior started 5-over through the first seven holes before rebounding with birdies on holes 8 and 9 to close out the front nine. She then recorded an even-par 36 on the back nine after a bogey at 11 followed by a birdie at 12.
Elisa Axelsen played the front nine at even-par after a birdie at the third. Four bogies on the back nine would put her at 4-over for the day and moving her up to 13th place.
Carianne Wright posted a 10-over par 82 and is tied for 22nd place.
Caroline Beebe shot an 8-over 80 in the second round after going 4-over on the front nine and the back nine. Ingrid Hagen shot a 7-over par 79 for a two-round total of 158 for both of them.
Troy continues to hold onto the top spot with a two-round total of 600 and +24 for the tournament. Texas State is second with a 606 total for the two rounds and +30 for the tournament. The Jags are in third place with a two-round total of 614 for a +38 for the tournament. ULM moved up to fourth place and four shots behind the Jags with a two-round total of 618 for a +42 for the tournament.
UALR is in fifth place (623, +47), Georgia State is sixth (626, +50) with Arkansas State and Western Kentucky tied for seventh (632, +56).
Ryals (148, +4) holds a one stroke lead going into the final round today with ULM’s Alison Knowles and Troy’s Brooke Spinks tied for second place (149, +5), four tied for fourth place two strokes back at +6 and two tied for eighth place at three strokes back at +7. Elisa Axelsen is the next-highest Jaguar at 13th place and six strokes back.
The final round begins this morning with Hagen teeing off at 8:55am, followed by Beebe at 9:04, Wright at 9:13, Axelsen at 9:22am and Ryals at 9:31am.
USA’s Ashleigh Ryals Tied For Third In SBC Championships
Senior Ashleigh Ryals shot 1-over in the first round of the SBC Championships and is tied for third place entering day two. | Photo: usajaguars.com
The first round of the Sun Belt Conference Championship saw South Alabama’s Ashleigh Ryals shoot a 1-over par 73 to tie for third place on Monday at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Alabama.
The senior from Gulf Breeze, Florida played the front nine 1-over after she birdied the second but bogeyed the next two holes. Another bogey at the sixth moved her to 2-over but she would birdie the eighth to get back to 1-over. Starting with nine, she would par the next eight holes before she bogeyed the 17th but ended the round with a birdie at the par-five 18th to shoot even par on the back nine.
She will start the second round on Tuesday just three shots off the lead in a tie for third place.
Carianne Wright shot a 3-over par 75 as she is tied for eighth place.
Elisa Axelsen is 6-over and tied for 19th place along with Caroline Beebe. Ingrid Hagen is 7-over tied for 21st.
Troy currently leads the team standings at +3 with Texas State in second place at +12 and USA is tied with Arkansas-Little Rock at +16. Georgia State is +24 in fifth place, Western Kentucky and Lousiana-Monroe are tied for 6th with +28 and Arkansas State is in the eighth and final place at +30.
UALR’s Sofia Barglund and Troy’s Fatima Fern Cano are both tied for first place after shooting a 2-under 70 in the first round.
Hagen will be the first Jaguar on the tee this morning at 9:25am, followed by Beebe at 9:35am, Axelsen at 9:45am, Wright at 9:55am and Ryals at 10:05am.
South Alabama Sports – Weekend Preview
Baseball
The Jaguar baseball team will host Arkansas State for a three-game weekend series at Eddie Stanky Field starting Friday evening at 6:30pm.
Locke St. John (3-1) will make his ninth start of the season against right hander David Owen (4-1) for the Red Wolves. USA enters the game after taking two of three games from Texas State last weekend but dropping a midweek game to Nicholls State 15-4. USA has an overall season record of 15-17 and a 5-6 record in the Sun Belt.
Saturday night the Jags and Red Wolves will get underway at 6:30pm again with right hander Kevin Hill (2-4) taking the mound against lefty Chandler Hawkins (2-4) for ASU. The two will round out the weekend with a 1pm start on Sunday with righty Bradley Wallace (3-3) taking the mound for ASU while USA has not named a starter for Sunday yet.
Arkansas State enters the game with an 18-15 record overall and an 8-4 record in conference play.
Softball
The Jaguars will be in Lafayette taking on fellow Sun Belt powerhouse Louisiana-Lafayette in a three game series. Saturday they will start it off with a double-header beginning at 2pm.
USA enters the game after a 3-2 win over Mississippi State and sporting a 31-6 record overall and a conference record of 8-2. ULL enters the weekend on a 13-game winning streak with an overall record of 28-6-1 and a perfect conference record of 9-0, which puts them on top of the standings for the conference.
Track and Field
The USA Men’s and Women’s track and field teams will compete in their third and final home event as they host the 14th annual South Alabama Invitational at Jaguar Track on Friday and Saturday.
Fellow Sun Belt schools Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Troy will be in attendance as well as Belhaven, Birmingham Southern, Loyola (La.), Tulane, West Florida and William Carey.
The Jaguars will also recognize 13 graduating seniors in a brief ceremony on Saturday. Tyler Agee, Nick Farell, Leah Hixon, Noelle Jones, Jarrod Kedzior, Tori Lawson, Jeff Long, Melissa McClusky, Adam Patterson, Garrett Schumacher, Alex Shields, Connor Smith, and Bobbie Williamson will be the ones honored.
Women’s Golf
The Women’s Golf team will compete in the Sun Belt Championships beginning on Monday at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Alabama. The event will run through Wednesday.
Football
Head coach Joey Jones announced that Quinton Dent has signed a National Letter-of-Intent to join the South Alabama football team this fall.
Dent played the previous two seasons at Laney (Ca.) Community College and is the second JuCo defensive back to sign with USA this spring and raises the number of secondary players in this recruiting class to ten.
Dent is a 6’3″, 180-pound native of Haines City, FL. He earned first-team all-Golden Gate Conference Central Division honors last fall as he helped his team to an 8-3 record. He recorded 32 total tackles, 23 of them solo, with three interceptions and a team-best 13 passes broken up.
USA Golf In 2nd After First Round Of Old Waverly Collegiate Classic
Photo: Mike Kittrell al.com
The Jaguar golf team is closing out their regular season at Mississippi State in the Old Waverly Collegiate Classic. After a fast start, the team from USA stands in second place after the first 18 holes.
Tyler Klava, Michael Garretson and Blake Kelley shot par or better in the opening Michael Garretson and Blake Kelley each shot 2-under-par 70, Tyler Klava posted an even-par 72, Ryan Pope shot a 74 and Lane Hulse shot a 75 as the Jags shot a 2-under-par 268 group score.
Due to weather delaying the start on Sunday, the first round was completed on Monday which also caused the second round to not be completed. The second round of 18 holes will be concluded on Tuesday as they are set to pick up where they left off at 8:30am with players remaining on the course to start the third round and wrap up the tournament afterwards.
Cincinnati led after the first 18 holes with a 4-under-par 284 team total. The Bearcats and the Jaguars were the only teams among the 15 competing to shoot below par in the opening round. Florida and Mississippi were tied for third place three shots behind USA. Memphis, the top ranked team coming into the event, rounded out the top five with a 290 team score and were just one shot ahead of Austin Peay, Louisiana-Lafayette and Southeastern Louisiana.
Pope had a team-high five birdies in the opening round of 18 holes with back-to-back birdies on holes 8 and 9 then again on holes 14 and 15. The freshman also scored a three at the 444-yard 11th hole, the longest par four of the course.
The Old Waverly Golf Club is a par-72 course that is 7,088 yards long.
USA Men’s Golf Wins Samford Intercollegiate Championship
The South Alabama men’s golf team won the championship title at the Samford Intercollegiate on Tuesday.
They were trailing ninth ranked UAB by 16 strokes after the first round on Monday but were able to overtake them by two shots to win the tournament. This is the Jaguars first championship title shince winning the BancorpSouth Intercollegiate title on April 5, 2011. It’s also their fourth top-3 performance of the year so far.
Lane Hulse recorded two scores of 74 and a final round 73 to tie for second place individually as he helped the team to the title on Tuesday.
The team will play again on Monday when they travel to compete in the Tiger Invitational hosted by Auburn University.
USA Women’s Golf Finish 3rd In Tournament
Photo: Mike Kittrell al.com
South Alabama’s women’s golf team finished their 12th Annual USA Women’s Invitational Tournament at Azalea City Golf Course with a top three finish.
Elisa Axelsen recorded an even-par 36 on the back nine whiel Carianna Wright carded three birdies to lead the Jaguars in the final round. They both tied for seventh place in the individual standings.
Anna Lesher and Axelsen tied for the team’s low score in the final round by both shooting a 74. Carianna Wright finished the final round with a 75. Ashleigh Ryals recorded a 76 and Ingrid Hagen finished with a 79.
The Jags finished the final round with a 299, the lowest team score of the day to finished third among 15 schools participating. They were four strokes behind tournament champion Memphis and two shots behind second place finisher Jacksonville State.
They will return to the course in two weeks in the Lady Eagle Invitational in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for their third event of the spring season.
Klava Makes The Round Of 64 But Gets Eliminated In Match Play
After shooting a 67 to open the US Amateur Championship, Tyler Klava had a tough second round shooting 77 and having to play in a playoff to make the cut and get into the round of 64 for match play.
Klava made bogey’s on holes 3, 4, 9 and 10 including a double bogey on hole 12. His only birdie came on hole 17 to get it to +4 and into the playoff to make the playoff for the round of 64.
After the playoff on Wednesday, he also had to play 18 holes against #4 seeded Justin Shin from Canada where Klava fell 3 & 2 to Shin.
Mobile’s Bobby Wyatt is seeded 44th, who plays for the University of Alabama, defeated #21 seeded Rico Hoey of Rancho Cucamongo, CA 4 & 3 to advance to the round of 32 to face #53 seeded Gavin Hall today to advance to the round of 16.
Stewart Jolly from Birmingham, AL was seeded #10 defeated #55 Scottie Scheffler in 20 holes and will face #42 seeded Brandon Hagy of Westlake Village, CA in the round of 32 today.
Zach Hughes from Mobile (Samford), Robby Shelton from Wilmer (University of Alabama) and Ryan Benton from Dothan (Auburn University) all shot +5 for the tournament and missed the cut. Wilson McDonald from UAB and Cory Whitsett from Alabama were +6 missing the cut.
Klava Shoots 67, Tied For 3rd At US Amateur Championship
South Alabama Junior Tyler Klava played his first round in his second consecutive U.S. Amateur Championship on Monday. He shot a 3-under-par 67 to finish tied for third once all of the golfers finished their rounds.
Klava’s 67 puts him two shots off the lead as they get ready to play the second round of stroke-play before starting match play on wednesday. His round yesterday was on the Charles River Country Club course, today he will tee it up on the longer of the two courses The Country Club of Brookline course.
After today’s round, the top 64 will advance to play match-play, which will all be played at The Country Club.
This year is much different than last year when, according to Klava, he shot himself out of it in the first round and missed the cut. However he will have to continue shooting well as the 315 participates are all gunning for the 64 slots to advance.
Klava shot the best round of any of the golfers with ties to the state of Alabama. Alabama’s Bobby Wyatt shot 1-over; Robby Shelton IV, Cory Whitsett, and Andrew Lawson all shot 2-over.
Tyler is slated to tee off at 2:20pm on hole #1 of The Country Club course.
Tyler Klava Begins US Amateur Championship Play Today
South Alabama Golfer Tyler Klava, a junior, will take part in the U.S. Amateur Championship beginning today at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. This is his second consecutive appearance in the Championship.
The Country Club course will play at more that 7,300 yards and along with Charles River Country Club a shorter course, will both be used to trim down the field from 312 to the top 64 by Wednesday. The first two rounds will be stroke play to get to the final 64, when it will turn to match play.
The U.S. Amateur Championship is the leading annual golf tournament in the US for amateur golfers and is organized by the United States Golf Association. There are no age or gender restrictions on entry, however players must have a handicap index of 2.4 or less.
The tournament consists of two days of stroke play with the top 64 playing in a match-play knockout competition to decide the champion. All knockout matches consist of 18 holes except for the championship match, which spans 36 holes with 18 in the morning and the final 18 in the afternoon. Players such as Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and many other well known golfers have won the US Amateur championships since it was established in 1895.
Tyler tees off at 7:50am on hole #10. Scores can be found on the USGA website by clicking here.