Ofstedahl Picks Up third Career Win, Eagles Finish 6th at Mercer Invite

Monday, November 9

Macon, Ga.

Georgia Southern University

Mercer Invitational

Ofstedahl Picks Up third Career Win, Eagles Finish 6th at Mercer Invite

11/10/2020 8:21:00 PM | Women's Golf

Final Results

Ofstedahl now has eight top-5 finishes in her career.

By: Marc Gignac

MACON, Ga. – Ella Ofstedahl fired a 70 Tuesday, tied for the second-lowest round of the tournament, to earn medalist honors and lead the Georgia Southern women's golf team to a sixth-place finish at the Mercer Invitational at Brickyard Golf Club.

Ofstedahl (-1) won the event by a stroke over Mercer's Lauren Lightfritz (E). Georgia Southern moved up one spot into sixth, five strokes ahead of BYU and five behind East Tennessee State. Mercer won the tournament, followed by Chattanooga and Western Kentucky.

Savannah Satterfield led the Eagles with five birdies on the day to shoot 73 on a windy, overcast day, and Hailey Katona finished the event tied for 23rd after carding a 79.

Ofstedahl, who started today's round on the 10th hole, led the tournament in par-4 scoring and pars as the fifth-year senior rolled in 41 pars and seven birdies. Three of those birdies came today on her final seven holes as she made birdie at 3, 6 and 8 to take the lead. She putted from the fringe for a birdie on 9 and left a 2-foot par putt for the win.

Satterfield played her first nine holes 2-under with birdies on 11, 12 and 18 to make the turn at 2-under. The junior added birdies on holes 2 and 6 to finish 1-over for the day.

Scores
Team – 304-311-301=916 (+52), 6
Ella Ofstedahl – 73-72-70=215 (-1), 1
Hailey Katona – 75-75-79=229 (+13), T23
Abby Newton – 77-83-79=239 (+23), T37
Savanah Satterfield – 84-82-73=239 (+23), T37
Kaysie Harrelson – 79-82-82=243 (+27), T45

Quotables from Coach Emily Kuhfeld
"I'm really proud of Ella and the grit and resilience she showed this week. It's been kind of a crazy season for Ella, and we were so happy to have her back and obviously, with COVID and everything, things haven't quite been normal. But it definitely did feel normal today with Ella winning in Macon like she did last year. It was great to see a good person and a hard worker come through and close it out down the stretch for her third career victory. We're so happy for her and proud for her."

"Savanah definitely got the bounce-back award today. She really hung in there and went out firing and had a great attitude all day."

"I feel like our team - probably for some of them - the worst enemy out there, especially on that course, was themselves. They are trying so hard and wanting it so bad and putting so much pressure on themselves and kind of trying to make everything perfect, when middle of the fairway, middle of the green and a lot of pars showed that that was enough to win. It was a real learning experience for our younger players and our newer players who are traveling for the first or second time, and I'm really happy to end the fall season with a good learning experience and a win for Ella. We're heading into the offseason now and really looking forward to all being together again in the spring."

Up Next
The Eagles open the spring portion of their schedule at the UNF/WKU Spring Break Shootout Feb. 15-16, before hosting the Strutter Gus Invitational at Georgia Southern University Course Feb. 21-22.