Southern California started on top, played steady in the middle and finished strong to win the Division I Women’s Golf Championships team title at the University of New Mexico Golf Course in Albuquerque May 23. It was the second national championship for the program and first since 2003.

The Trojans began the final round with a three-stroke lead over UCLA and played well enough to gain some breathing room en route to a six-stroke victory over the Bruins. Three-time defending champion Duke finished 12 strokes behind the Trojans at 28-over par.

“Back in December, we had a party for the team and I had a cake made that said, ‘Believe in the Dream,’” said Southern California head coach Andrea Gatson. “I told them throughout the season to believe in the dream. We talked about it all year long. And it came true. It’s incredible.”

Purdue and Arizona State finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while Denver, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Florida also finished among the top 10. Georgia and Wake Forest tied for 10^th overall.

Southern California’s Belen Mozo shot a 69 on the first day to take an early lead in the individual tournament, but fell to fourth overall with a final-day 75. Senior Dewi Schreefel, the 2006 NCAA individual champion and a two-time all-American entering the tournament, clinched the third top-10 NCAA finish of her career, tying for eighth with a 4-over 292 (73-78-72-69). Lizette Salas, the Pacific-10 freshman of the year, tied for 15^th overall with a 7-over 295.

Arizona State junior Azahara Munoz picked an ideal time to win her first collegiate tournament, claiming medalist honors with a 1-under 287. Munoz topped UCLA’s Tiffany Joh in a playoff-hole tiebreaker to emerge as the winner. The Spanish-born Munoz is the ninth Sun Devil golfer to win the individual title and first since Grace Park did it in 1999.

A Division I women’s golf program has never won more than three consecutive national championships, and Duke was unable to become the first, failing to send senior Jennifer Pandolfi off with four titles in four years.

The Blue Devils didn’t go down without a fight, however, saving their best golf for the final round. Duke carded a tournament-best 7-under par on Friday to jump from eighth to third in the standings.

“I’m extremely proud of this team, the way they sustained their belief all the way to the very end. We didn’t play this last day for anything other than to win this championship – all the way to the end. They were playing because they knew that anytime the birdies could start rolling in and the bogeys could roll in for the other teams. There were always hope for the win. I was very impressed with that,” said head coach Dan Brooks.

Duke’s Jennie Lee had the tournament’s lone hole-in-one, acing the 12^th hole on the final day of competition

Team results

1. Southern California, 284-300-295-289 -- 1,168; 2. UCLA, 89-295-298-292 -- 1,174; 3. Duke, 299-300-300-281 -- 1,180; 4. Purdue, 298-304-303-283 -- 1,188; 5. Arizona St., 290-301-301-297 -- 1,189; 6. (tie) Denver, 293-294-308-296 -- 1,191; and Texas A&M, 295-299-299-298 -- 1,191; 8. Arkansas, 298-297-302-297 -- 1,194; 9. Florida, 301-299-297-299 -- 1,196; 10. (tie) Georgia, 297-303-303-294 -- 1,197; and Wake Forest, 293-306-306-292 -- 1,197; 12. (tie) Auburn, 289-315-309-302 -- 1,215; Virginia, 296-317-301-301 -- 1,215; and Alabama, 296-311-306-302 -- 1,215; 15. LSU, 300-315-312-295 -- 1,222; 16. UNLV, 314-297-304-308 -- 1,223; 17. (tie) TCU, 298-310-312-307 -- 1,227; and Texas, 298-319-309-301 -- 1,227; 19. (tie) Oklahoma St., 294-312-307-315 -- 1,228; and Tulsa, 297-317-310-304 -- 1,228; 21. UC Davis, 298-319-315-302 -- 1,234; 22. South Carolina, 306-316-310-303 -- 1,235; 23. Arizona, 307-309-314-310 -- 1,240; 24. Furman, 312-313-315-313 -- 1,253

Individual results

1. (tie) *Azahara Munoz, Arizona St., 69-72-73-73 -- 287; and Tiffany Joh, UCLA, 74-69-72-72 -- 287; 3. Garrett Phillips, Georgia, 71-74-71-73 -- 289; 4. Belen Mozo, Southern California, 69-71-75-75 -- 290; 5. (tie) Amanda Blumenherst, Duke, 75-71-77-68 -- 291; Anna Nordqvist, Arizona St., 75-73-72-71 -- 291; and Stephanie Sherlock, Denver, 71-73-77-70 -- 291; 8. (tie) Ashley Freeman, Texas A&M, 71-72-74-75 -- 292; Stacy Lewis, Arkansas, 73-72-75-72 -- 292; Sydnee Michaels, UCLA, 69-74-75-74 -- 292; and Dewi Claire Schreefel, Southern California, 73-78-72-69 -- 292; 12. Christel Boeljon, Purdue, 73-77-75-68 -- 293; 13. (tie) Nannette Hill, Wake Forest, 67-78-76-73 -- 294; and Caroline Westrup, Florida St., 72-74-77-71 -- 294; 15. (tie) Maude-Aimee Leblanc, Purdue, 72-79-75-69 -- 295; Jennie Lee, Duke, 74-79-73-69 -- 295; Danielle McVeigh, Texas A&M, 73-74-75-73 -- 295; Lizette Salas, Southern California, 73-77-73-72 -- 295; and Glory Yang, UCLA, 73-75-75-72 -- 295; 20. (tie) Kathleen Ekey, Alabama, 73-76-75-72 -- 296; Paola Moreno, Southern California, 70-77-75-74 -- 296; and Alexandra Phelps, New Mexico, 69-76-76-75 -- 296; 23. (tie) Cydney Clanton, Auburn, 74-75-77-71 -- 297; Lucy Nunn, Arkansas, 76-77-71-73 -- 297; Ashley Rollins, Texas, 73-77-77-70 -- 297; and Sarah Zwartynski, Texas A&M, 72-78-73-74 -- 297; 27. Tiffany Chudy, Florida, 76-77-75-70 -- 298; 28. (tie) Junthima Gulyanamitta, Purdue, 79-75-75-70 -- 299; Katie Kempter, Denver, 73-72-79-75 -- 299; Stefanie Kenoyer, Furman, 76-74-75-74 -- 299; Lene Krog, Virginia, 70-82-74-73 -- 299; Natalie Sheary, Wake Forest, 74-76-76-73 -- 299; and Alison Walshe, Arizona, 76-74-74-75 -- 299; 34. (tie) Jennie Arseneault, Virginia, 71-79-76-74 -- 300; Laura Crawford, Wake Forest, 77-74-74-75 -- 300; Lauren Doughtie, North Carolina St., 76-80-74-70 -- 300; Stefanie Endstrasser, Southern California, 72-75-79-74 -- 300; Ornella Jouven, Florida, 77-72-74-77 -- 300; Alice Kim, UC Davis, 73-74-79-74 -- 300; and Therese Koelbaek, UNLV, 75-76-74-75 -- 300; 41. (tie) Kimberly Donovan, Duke, 77-74-79-71 -- 301; Maria Hernandez, Purdue, 74-73-78-76 -- 301; Camila Mori, South Carolina, 78-73-76-74 -- 301; Dawn Shockley, Denver, 78-76-73-74 -- 301; and Maria Jose Uribe, UCLA, 73-77-77-74 -- 301; 46. (tie) Krystle Caithness, Georgia, 76-74-77-75 -- 302; and Michaela Cavener, Tulsa, 73-76-76-77 -- 302; 48. (tie) Chelsea Benton, Denver, 72-73-80-78 -- 303; Valentine Derrey, TCU, 77-80-72-74 -- 303; Sara-Maude Juneau, Louisville, 75-78-77-73 -- 303; Kelli Shean, Arkansas, 76-74-78-75 -- 303; Benedicte Toumpsin, South Carolina, 76-79-76-72 -- 303; and Jessica Yadloczky, Florida, 75-74-74-80 -- 303; 54. (tie) Carolina Andrade, Georgia, 77-78-78-71 -- 304; Helena Blomberg, Alabama, 74-75-79-76 -- 304; Amanda Johnson, Oklahoma St., 73-80-75-76 -- 304; Natasha Krishna, UNLV, 80-74-72-78 -- 304; Camilla Lennarth, Alabama, 71-80-78-75 -- 304; Megan McChrystal, LSU, 73-78-83-70 -- 304; Juliana Murcia, Arizona St., 73-79-75-77 -- 304; Jennifer Pandolfi, Duke, 73-79-74-78 -- 304; and Amalie Valle, LSU, 74-79-75-76 -- 304; 63. (tie) Rebecca Kuhn, LSU, 76-75-80-74 -- 305; and Margaret Shirley, Auburn, 71-80-78-76 -- 305; 65. (tie) Tammy Clelland, Oklahoma St., 73-80-73-80 -- 306; Melissa Loh, TCU, 74-76-77-79 -- 306; and Hannah Yun, Florida, 73-83-74-76 -- 306; 68. (tie) Prisela Campbell, TCU, 72-77-81-77 -- 307; Kelly Fuchik, Tulsa, 76-81-74-76 -- 307; Mallory Hetzel, Georgia, 75-80-77-75 -- 307; Kristin Ingram, Arkansas, 73-79-78-77 -- 307; Pernilla Lindberg, Oklahoma St., 76-72-79-80 -- 307; Kristin Walla, Texas, 74-82-75-76 -- 307; and Alison Whitaker, Duke, 82-76-76-73 -- 307; 75. (tie) Angela King, Stanford, 75-76-79-78 -- 308; Candace Schepperle, Auburn, 69-82-79-78 -- 308; Chelsea Stelzmiller, UC Davis, 72-83-80-73 -- 308; Maiya Tanaka, UCLA, 75-79-76-78 -- 308; and Sarah Thead, Auburn, 75-78-75-80 -- 308; 80. (tie) Leisl Hasbrouck, Tulsa, 76-77-81-75 -- 309; Mary Jacobs, Arizona, 78-77-79-75 -- 309; Joy Kim, Virginia, 79-79-74-77 -- 309; and Erica Moston, San Jose St., 81-73-78-77 -- 309; 84. Calle Nielson, Virginia, 78-77-78-77 -- 310; 85. (tie) Tonya Choate, UNLV, 81-74-78-78 -- 311; Ellie Givens, Denver, 77-78-79-77 -- 311; Alejandra Guacaneme, UNLV, 78-73-80-80 -- 311; and Courtney Harter, Alabama, 78-80-74-79 -- 311; 89. (tie) Bryana Gregory, UC Davis, 78-79-76-79 -- 312; Caney Hines, Texas, 76-79-78-79 -- 312; Karin Kinnerud, Oklahoma St., 73-80-80-79 -- 312; and Jennifer Osborn, Arizona St., 73-77-86-76 -- 312; 93. (tie) Alejandra Llaneza, Arizona, 77-80-82-75 -- 314; Carrie Morris, TCU, 75-77-82-80 -- 314; and Alexis Rather, LSU, 77-83-79-75 -- 314; 96. (tie) Allie Bodemann, Wake Forest, 75-78-83-79 -- 315; Mariana Macias, Auburn, 76-82-80-77 -- 315; Alex Schulte, Arkansas, 80-74-79-82 -- 315; and Bly Worley, South Carolina, 75-85-79-76 -- 315; 100. (tie) Jean Chua, Wake Forest, 79-86-80-71 -- 316; Shannon Fish, Texas, 75-81-79-81 -- 316; Sydney Roughton, UC Davis, 77-83-80-76 -- 316; and Innapha Tantanavivat, Georgia, 75-77-80-84 -- 316; 104. (tie) Whitney Neuhauser, Virginia, 77-85-77-78 -- 317; 105. (tie) Julia Best, Texas, 78-83-81-76 -- 318; Corrine Carr, Furman, 80-82-79-77 -- 318; Lauren Johnson, Texas A&M, 79-86-77-76 -- 318; and Amanda Wilson, Arizona, 76-78-79-85 -- 318; Allyson Ferguson, TCU, 78-82-82-77 -- 319; 109. (tie) Nicole Schachner, Florida, 82-76-85-76 -- 319; and Woori Shin, Tulsa, 72-83-79-85 -- 319; 112. (tie) Ashley Baker, Furman, 80-78-81-81 -- 320; and Liisa Kelo, Arizona St., 76-84-81-79 -- 320; 114. (tie) Stephanie Oukeo, Purdue, 80-83-78-80 -- 321; and Whitney Simons, South Carolina, 77-83-79-82 -- 321; 116. (tie) Tara Goedeken, Tulsa, 80-85-81-76 -- 322; and Blair Lamb, Furman, 79-79-83-81 -- 322; 118. (tie) Caroline Martens, LSU, 81-85-78-80 -- 324; Miranda Orr, Texas A&M, 85-75-83-81 -- 324; and Sarah Sturm, Alabama, 80-81-82-81 -- 324; 121. Kasi Lee, UNLV, 83-83-83-77 -- 326; 122. Taylor Barrett, South Carolina, 84-81-82-81 -- 328; 123. Jackie Hilea, Furman, 77-88-80-84 -- 329; 124. Emily Mason, Arizona, 81-82-86-85 -- 334

* Munoz won individual championship on playoff hole.