LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. – The Idaho Vandal women's golf team rallied with improved rounds every day, but an early deficit was too much to overcome and the Idaho women closed their season in sixth place at the Big Sky Conference Championship.

"Even though we fell short of our goal at this year's Big Sky Championship, I am proud of the team's focus and determination to compete each day and see improvement round-to-round," head coach Stephanie Young said. "It was a total team effort as it has been all season long. Overall, our team has had great success this season and gained valuable experience that shows the future is bright for the Vandals."

Emma Kang closed the tournament with a second-round one-under 70 and a third-round score of one-over 72 to finish tied for 13th place at four-over for the weekend.

Zoe Newell finished tied for 22nd at 10-over for the tournament. Yvonne Vinceri was 13-over to finish tied for 30th and Jenna Bruggeman tied for 38th at 15-over. Boram Jung and Emma Heyman both competed for the Vandals at different points in the championship but didn't record an individual score.

Kang and Newell, the top-two finishers at the event for Idaho, are both freshmen and will look to build on strong debut campaigns.

"In today's final round we had our best team score which led to an opportunity to move up a few spots on the leaderboard," Young said. "A special congrats to Emma and Zoe on top finishes in their first conference championship."
 
ALL-CONFERENCE
The Big Sky Conference announced the All-Conference honorees Wednesday with three Vandals earning honors. Yvonne Vinceri picked up First-Team All-Big Sky honors. She earned an individual win at the EWU Eagle Invitational and tallied three other top-15 finishes, including a fifth-place finish at last week's Bobcat Desert Classic.

Freshmen Zoe Newell and Emma Kang earned second-team All-Big Sky honors.

Newell picked up an individual win at the Bowling Green Women's Intercollegiate and tallied three other top-25 finishes during the season.

Kang tallied seven top-25 finishes, including a sixth-place finish at the Bowling Green tournament.

"I'm very proud of our team for an outstanding season," Young said. "Special Congratulations to our three All-Big Sky Conference award winners. Yvonne Vinceri has been named All Big Sky in each of her three seasons. It's also great to see Zoe Newell and Emma Kang represent Idaho with All-Big Sky second team honors in their freshmen seasons."