NCAA Championship - Day Three Results

THE RUNDOWN
EUGENE, Ore. -- Baylor's Laura Lonardi finished ties for 27th place with a 54-hole score of 2-over-par 218 at the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship. Lonardi shot 3-over 75 in Sunday's third round at Eugene Country Club, which ultimately cost her a tiebreaker to advance to Monday's final round.

The top 15 teams and top nine individuals not on those teams advanced to the final round. Lonardi's 54-hole score of 2-over was good enough to advance, but she lost the third-round score tiebreaker to three players also at 2-over. In an unusual twist, one of the players who advanced through the third-round score tiebreaker was BYU's Kendra Dalton, who played her third round (70) on Thursday because BYU does not compete on Sundays. UC Davis' Andrea Wong (67) and Florida's Kelly Grassel (72) also advanced with better third-round scores as part of their 54-hole totals of 2-over-par 218. The only other player to not advance at 2-over was Texas' Sophia Schubert (73).

Lonardi began her round with a par on No. 1 and a birdie on No. 2 to drop to 2-under for the tournament. Bogeys and No. 3 and No. 6 dropped her back to even-par, and two more bogeys on No. 11 and No. 13 moved her to 2-over. After three straight pars, Lonardi made a crucial birdie on No. 17, but for the third consecutive round she bogeyed No. 18, which ended up costing her the opportunity to advance in Monday's final round.

Lonardi finished tied for third among the 12 players who qualified for the NCAA Championship as individuals. She finished behind Wake Forest's Jennifer Kupcho (-7) and Purdue's August Kim (E), and tied with UC Davis' Wong (-2).

Lonardi's tie for 27th place was the sixth-best NCAA Championship individual finish in program history, trailing Dylan Kim's fourth place finish in 2015, Jaclyn Jansen's tie for 14th in 2012, Josefin Svenningsson's tie for 20th in 2004, her own tie for 21st in 2015 and Hayley Davis tie for 21st in 2015.

HIGHLIGHTS
- Lonardi finished her Baylor career with the second-best stroke average in program history at 74.12, which trailed only Hayley Davis' 73.00.
- Lonardi's 72.39 stroke average for her senior season was the third-best single-season stroke average in program history, trailing Davis' 2014-15 (72.32) and 2012-13 (72.88) seasons.
- Lonardi finished the tournament with 38 pars over 54 holes, tied for eighth-most in the 132-player field.
- Lonardi tied for 12th in par-5 scoring average at 4-under 4.67.

STAT OF THE DAY
74.12 -- Laura Lonardi finished her Baylor career with a 74.12 stroke average over 117 career rounds, which ranks as the second-best stroke average in program history.

TOP QUOTE
"Unfortunately, she drove it about as bad as I've seen her drive it all year this week, and this is not a golf course where you can drive it poorly," head coach Jay Goble said after the round, while waiting to see if Lonardi would advance to the fourth day. "You really have to keep it in the fairway and keep it in play. To shoot 2-over and really hit your driver as bad as you've hit it all year, we're trying to figure something out. She hit some really good drives today, which was promising. We just hope we have a chance to fight another day. You want to play all four rounds, and you want to be out there to finish off your career on a high note. And I really think if she gets the chance to play tomorrow, she'll do really well.

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor has completed its 2015-16 season. Follow @BaylorWGolf on Twitter for updates throughout the year.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

EUGENE, Ore. - Bogeys at the 18th kept Laura Lonardi from being higher up the leaderboard after the first two days of the NCAA Championship.

And ultimately, her third straight bogey at the par-4, 400-yard hole cost the Baylor senior a spot in Monday's final round of stroke play at the 72-hole tournament at Eugene Country Club. Lonardi shot 3-over-par 75 in Sunday's third round and was tied for 27th at 2-over 218, but missed out on advancing as one of the top nine individuals not on the 15 advancing teams.

"Unfortunately, she drove it about as bad as I've seen her drive it all year this week, and this is not a golf course where you can drive it poorly," Baylor coach Jay Goble said. "To shoot 2-over and hit your drive as bad as you've hit it all year, we're just trying to figure something out. She hit some really good drives today, which was promising. You just hope we get a chance to right another day."

Lonardi actually tied for seventh among individuals off non-advancing teams. But instead of a playoff to break a five-way tie for the last three spots, Andrea Wong of UC Davis (67), BYU's Kendra Dalton (70) and Florida's Kelly Grassel (72) advanced over Sophia Shubert of Texas (73) and Lonardi (75) based on their third-round scores.

"I have no clue where I am, because I was just playing," Lonardi said right after her round. "Of course, I would really like to not finish with this 75, which leaves me a little bit unsatisfied and disappointed. I just have to wait and see what the afternoon groups do. I honestly don't even know how it works."

Lonardi's day got started off on a good note when she birdied the par-4, 355-yard second hole to get to 2-under for the tournament. But she bogeyed four of the next 11 holes and fell back to 2-over with five holes to play.

"I'm just not hitting my tee shots well enough," she said. "So from there, it's like I'm always trying to recover from that. But I did have chances, I could have gone lower. My putting is really good, but I just have to find a way to hit more fairways if we want to go really low. Once you're in the rough, you're always trying to hit the green, so you're not trying to put it real close."

At holes Nos. 14-16, Lonardi gave herself birdie opportunities with longer putts, but just couldn't get one to drop. Then, she hooked her tee shot on 17 into the trees on the left side.

But in a great recovery, she hit a low-trajectory shot down the right side of the fairway, nailed a wedge shot to within 10 feet and rolled it in for her second birdie of the day and seventh of the tournament. With four of her birdies coming on par-5 holes, Lonardi tied for 12th in par-5 scoring at 4-under 4.67.

"I hit a terrible tee shot, but then I was able to put it back into the fairway with actually a pretty good shot from there," she said, "because the rough is thick and the trees are pretty low, so you have to keep the ball really low. And then I put my wedge really close and made a good putt. The whole day, the putts were just not dropping, so it was good to finally put one in."

Just needing a par on 18 to survive the cut, Lonardi hit her tee shot into the rough down the right side, left her approach shot short and then had a difficult chip over a greenside bunker. The two-putt bogey proved costly.

"The second shot was actually pretty good, I just caught a little too much grass," she said. "But after a tee shot like that, you're most likely going to get a bogey. It's not about a chip shot over a bunker with like this much green to stop it."

Lonardi's 72.39-stroke average as a senior ranks as the second-best in program history behind Hayley Davis' school-record mark of 72.32 set last year. Her 74.12 career average also ranks second all-time behind Davis' 73.00.