WOMEN’S GOLF: Team takes eighth of 14

Mother Nature wreaked havoc on the annual Canes and Cardinal Classic by delaying the first round and suspending play during the second on Monday, as 14 teams competed at Don Shula’s Golf Resort.

But the weather didn’t stop senior Hagen Weintraub’s team-high 11th place finish Tuesday, as she shot consistently for all three rounds of her final home tournament. Weintraub fired a 73, 74 and 73 for a combined score of 220.

As a team, Miami moved up to eighth place, after its strongest showing in the third and final round, with a 295 for a total of 895 over the two days.

“We played good yesterday,” head coach Lela Cannon said. “You’ve got to play and it [the weather] can affect all the teams, so there’s no reason but that we just didn’t play well on Monday. The girls just try to shoot combined scores of 300 every day.”

No. 25 Louisville held onto its early lead for the title with an 871, which was four strokes ahead of No. 35 Furman and No. 36 Georgia State. Junior Cindy LaCrosse won the individual title with a four-under par 212 (67-74-71). A total of eight teams in the national top 80 competed in the three-round tournament.

Freshman Brooke Stuart improved over all three rounds for 72nd, while senior Jessica Steward finished 37th in her final home tournament. Steward hopes to join the Duramed FUTURES Tour which is the official development tour of the LPGA.

“Hopefully Jessica will go on to the Futures Tour after ACCs, and Hagen played well to finish off her career,” Cannon said.

The Canes return to action next Friday for the ACC tournament and their three final rounds of the 2007-2008 season.

Christina De Nicola may be contacted at c.denicola@umiami.edu.