Auburn Women's Golf team ended its fall season with an ace of a tournament at the NCAA Fall Preview.
The third-ranked women's golf team tied for second in a field consisting of nine of the top 10 and 17 of the top 25 teams in the country.
"This weekend has been great," said head coach Kim Evans in a release. "This is a preview of the NCAA Championship, and I feel like we really executed well. Our team never felt like they were out of it and, on a golf course like this, you're not. You have to play with such a focus and they did that very well."
The Tigers showed they were never out of the tournament by rallying to their second-place finish on the final day of play.
Auburn finished Friday and Saturday's rounds in sixth place, but put together an even-par 288 to end the tournament tied with UCLA in second place.
"We played solid golf and improved after every day," Evans said in a release. "It came down to the last hole to win and we barely fell short. We didn't meet our goal to win, but I'm not going to take any sour notes away from this NCAA Fall Preview."
Junior Cydney Clanton posted her second tournament win of the season by finishing each round with a two-under-par score of 70.
Clanton was named the Golfweek National Golfer of the Week for her performance.
"Cydney played incredible," Evans said. "She really had a lights-out weekend. It's another huge win for her. Her game is so complete and she's worked so hard to get that way."
The Fall Preview marked Clanton's second tournament win of the season. Clanton has finished under par in eight of the 10 rounds she has played this fall.
At the NCAA Fall Preview, Clanton finished five strokes ahead of the second place finisher, Brittany Altomare of UVA.
Clanton is currently the No. 4 player in the country in the Golfweek rankings.
"Ever since she came to Auburn, she's worked piece-by-piece to put all of the components together, and now she's mentally into it and enjoying her golf game," Evans said in a release. "Cydney is possibly the best player in the country right now."
Earlier this fall season, Clanton was also named the Southeastern Conference Golfer of the Week for the week of Oct. 21.
Sophomores Patricia Sanz and Haley Wilson assisted in the team's last day surge.
Sanz hit a one-under 71 on the final day after hitting eight-over-par Friday and Saturday.
Wilson posted a one-over-par 73 Sunday, her best score of the weekend.
Evans said Sanz and Wilson came around in their performance on the last day of play.
"Patricia and Haley finally got a feel for the course," Evans said. "It's a really difficult course and they put it together today and were really big for us. It was great to see that kind of clutch performance out of them again."
The NCAA Fall Preview was the women's golf team's last tournament until 2010.
The Tigers had two second-place finishes and two third-place finishes in the four tournaments they played in the fall.
"I love that we end our fall season on a high note," Evans said in a release. "However, I don't want to take that away from the things that we need to improve on for the spring season."
Auburn's next challenge is Feb. 22-23 in Tucson, Ariz., at the Arizona Wildcat Invitational.
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