CHAPEL HILL -- Despite struggling Sunday with a final round score of 300, Duke held off Oklahoma State for a one-stroke victory at the three-day Tar Heel Invitational. Liz Janangelo posted the team's lowest individual score, as her six-under-par total earned the freshman her first collegiate title.
It was the second straight competition that Janangelo finished as the low Blue Devil. The runner-up at last weekend's ACC/SEC Challenge, the freshman placed a greater degree of importance on the team's success, although she did add that garnering a victory of her own brought her a bit of redemption.
"It was nice to come through myself and to win," she said. "Last week I learned a lot. I learned I could make nine birdies [in one round] and I learned I could fall apart on one hole. So this week I just kept plugging along and played steady."
Janangelo is the third straight Blue Devil to win individual honors at the annual tournament held on UNC's Finley Golf Course.
"Yeah, it was a bit of deja vu," Leigh Anne Hardin said, who placed first as a freshman two years ago. "Last year Kristina [Engstrom] won, so every year it's been a Devil since I came here.... We get to play here a lot, so we feel really comfortable. It's like our home away from home."
Indeed, the Duke's team victory marked its sixth consecutive title at the event. The Blue Devils were without Virada Nirapathpongporn, the 2002 NCAA individual champion who is currently representing her native Thailand in the Asian Games.
"She's obviously a great player, [but] I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about [not having her]," head coach Dan Brooks said. "I feel that we've got a great bunch of players and you just go into each [tournament] with whoever you've got."
Although pleased that his side managed to fend off the charging Cowgirls, Brooks noted that his team played only "mediocre golf."
He emphasized that the fall tournaments are mostly opportunities to improve, as winning at all costs matters only at the Collegiate National Championships held each spring.
"The whole thing is to keep your mind on development, getting better," Brooks said. "If you ever get to hung up on [success], then you won't have it for very long. The only way to keep it is to keep trying to get better.... I think I've seen the [competition] improve over the years, so we've had to keep getting better."
With Duke having three weeks off from competition before it heads down to Alabama to compete in the Auburn Tiger-Derby Invitational, Brooks hopes to use the rest of October to help his players focus their attention on correcting flaws in their swings.
In particular, Brooks thought that the Blue Devils' mechanics could need re-tweaking in order to better stand up to the pressure on competition Sundays.
"One thing that I think is going to help us at nationals is to have our swings feeling really compact," he said. "We happen to have some swings that tend to get a little long, so I just think that would be a nice thing to clean up, and that takes time.... You need a few weeks to get everything a bit more connected."
All criticisms aside, however, Brooks felt proud of the effort his side displayed. The Tar Heel Invitational marked the third out of four weekends, and second consecutive, that the Blue Devils faced off in competitive play.
Afterwards, Brooks, weary from the grind of back-to-back events, summed up the busy month while getting into his car.
"I need to find some place to get a beer," he said.
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