Darquea Posts Second Straight Tournament Win

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Miami Hurricanes freshman golfer Daniela Darquea trailed by seven strokes entering Sunday’s final round at the SunTrust Gator Women’s Invitational.

Then, she birdied six of the first seven holes to open the final round. Now, she has her second consecutive tournament title in as many weeks.

Darquea carded a career-low-tying 67 in the final round Sunday, erasing a seven-stroke deficit, to win the 2014 SunTrust Gator Women’s Invitational by one stroke. The Quito, Ecuador, native began the day tied for 28th and posted her fourth straight top-10 finish.

“With how my final round started, I knew I had a chance to win today,” Darquea said. “I tried my best to stay calm and put myself in a good position throughout the round. I kept focusing on my plan and just stuck to my routine to get me through the day.”

No. 31 Miami posted the third-lowest team round Sunday, shooting 293 to finish tied for fourth with No. 32 Texas A&M at 44-over 884. No. 12 Arizona won the tournament by one stroke, besting No. 37 Kent State.

“Dani played great!” head coach Patti Rizzo said. “This course is very, very hard the way it was set up to play this weekend.”

Junior Leticia Ras-Anderica tied for 21st overall at 11-over 221 after shooting a final-round 76. Freshman Delfina Acosta, who entered Sunday as the Hurricanes’ top performer through 36 holes, shot a final-round 77 to tie for 27th at 12-over 222.

Sophomore Kailey Walsh’s final-round 74 was the Canes’ second-lowest score behind Darquea. Walsh tied for 54th at 20-over 230. Junior Rika Park finished at 21-over 231, tying for 57th.

“The rest of the team is disappointed (with where we finished), but I told them it wasn’t so bad,” Rizzo said. “We finished fourth and beat three teams ranked higher than us, so we are still on target to accomplish our goal of being ranked in the top 20 by the end of the year. One step at a time.”

Miami will conclude its regular-season schedule March 24-26 at the SDSU Farms Invitational in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

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