Without top two players, golf still places third

For the first time since the 2003-04 season began, the No. 1 women's golf team failed to finish in first place at a tournament, coming in third at the Liz Murphy Collegiate. However, the Blue Devils had only four players competing, as the team was without senior Virada Nirapathpongporn and sophomore Liz Janangelo, who spent the weekend competing in the LPGA's Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first of the four major championships on the tour.

  Despite losing the team competition to Georgia by 12 strokes, Brittany Lang was able to capture the individual title by shooting a nine-under-par 207, her career best. It was also Lang's second consecutive victory having won the SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational earlier this month.

  "I putted very well this week," Lang said. "I hit a lot of greens and made a lot of putts. I felt very confident coming off that win in Florida."

  Lang's 68 Sunday, Duke's best of the day, was only topped throughout the tournament by her six-under-par 66 Friday. She beat Georgia's Allison Martin by three strokes for the title.

  Overall the team was pleased with its performance given the difficult circumstances. Due to Nirapathpongporn and Janangelo's participation in the professional event, Duke competed with just four golfers instead of the normal five allowed to participate. The top four scores are included in the team's total., meaning one can usually be dropped.

  "I was real proud of the effort the team made," Blue Devil head coach Dan Brooks said. "It's tough to go down with four. I thought that they stepped up, and I didn't hear anything but a real aggressive, positive attitude."

  Because of the close competition the weekend served as a learning experience for both the team at Liz Murphy Championship and the golfers competing on the pro tour.

  "We've found it difficult to get into tournaments where it is real close," Brooks said. "[Nirapathpongporn] and Liz got to go out and be in a very intense situation, and we got to be in an intense situation here."

  At the LPGA event, Janangelo finished 40th, third among amateurs, while Nirapathpongporn failed to make the cut.

Janangelo shot a 294 over the four days, including a two-under 70 Sunday. In her final round she had three birdies, four bogeys and a double-bogey on her way to shooting a 75.

  Nirapathpongporn missed the cut by two shots, recording scores of 79 and 76 in the first two rounds.

  The team will reunite next weekend for the Bryan National Collegiate, the last tournament before beginning postseason play. After experiencing a tournament loss for the first time all season, the team's outlook was still extremely positive, recognizing that this will only toughen it for the rest of the season.

  "The experience was good for our team.... Golf tends to get better as the season goes along for the other teams," Brooks said. "We want to be ready when we get into our postseason to be able to handle the environment of teams being a little closer."