DEBARY, Fla. — An opening-round ace moved
Zoe Duval into first place, and the freshman standout for App State Women's Golf never relinquished the top spot after putting that number 1 on her scorecard.
Medaling for the second time in the last three events, Duval set a program record with a 69-69-68—206 score over 54 holes on the par-71 layout and won the Babs Steffens Invitational title Tuesday with a 7-under total, five shots ahead of second place.
Stetson's Isaki Sakashita cut her deficit to two strokes thanks to three straight birdies to begin the back nine of the final round, and Duval increased her lead with a birdie on No. 14. When Duval made a birdie at No. 16 to reach 8 under and Sakashita carded a double bogey, the margin grew to six shots with just two holes remaining.
App State placed second in the 16-team field with a 25-over total of 297-290-290—877, 10 shots behind Stetson, the tournament host, and 28 shots ahead of third place.
Maria Pinedo tied for fifth place at 8 over (76-74-71—221),
Alisa Pressley tied for 12th at 13 over (79-75-72—226) and
Ona Lukes tied for 20th at 18 over (80-72-79—231), while
Salem Lee had the team's second-best opening round before tying for 33rd at 22 over (73-79-83—235).
Kendal Graham competed as an individual and closed with an 81.
Duval was the only competitor in the 91-player field to post a score in the 60s, and she did it in all three rounds. In the history of App State Women's Golf, there have been 12 individual rounds in the 60s, and eight of those have occurred since the start of the 2025-26 season, head coach
Chan Metts' second season in Boone.
Sakshita, playing one group ahead of Duval during Monday's opening round, broke a first-place tie by making a birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole and moving from even to 1 under. Duval followed that by pulling a 7-iron for her 150-yard shot and recording a hole-in-one to move from even to 2 under.
Another 2-under 69 in the second set of 18 holes Monday afternoon gave Duval a three-shot lead entering Tuesday's final round. She played the first six holes at 3 under (with four birdies and one bogey) to quickly build a four-shot advantage over Sakshita.
This was App State's second spring tournament, after Duval had closed the fall schedule by co-medaling at the Terrier Intercollegiate in Spartanburg, S.C. That had served as the program's first individual victory in a 54-hole tournament since 2018, when Melany Chong won the Low Country Intercollegiate in Spartanburg.
In September, Duval was the Elon Invitational runner-up with a 2-under total of 70-71-70—211 that broke App State's 54-hole record of a 1-under 215 at the 2017 Sun Belt Championship. Duval took six more strokes off the record Tuesday while leading App State to a team total of 877 that ranks as the third-lowest 54-hole score in program history.
The four best 54-hole team scores in program history have all taken place since the start of the 2025-26 season.
The 2025-26 season is presented by Hound Ears Club. The Mountaineers are back in action from March 2-3 at the River Landing Classic hosted by UNCW in Wallace.
