Aug. 14, 2002
SCARBOROUGH, N.Y. - Aztec junior Shayna Miyajima continued her impressive run through the heat and hills at Sleepy Hollow Country Club course by winning her first- and second-round match play contests today and advancing to the round of 16 at the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. Miyajima led from the third hole in defeating Jennifer Perri, 6-and-4, in the second round, which came only hours after she overcame an early three-hole deficit to defeat Emma Duggleby, 2-and-1.
Miyajima will face the tournament's 40th-seed, Mollie Fankhauser, in the third round at 8:20 a.m. EDT. Fankhauser, a U.S. Curtis Cup member from Columbus, Ohio, defeated U.S. Girls' Junior champion In-Bee Park to advance to the round of 16. The Miyajima-Fankhauser winner will face the victor of the Brandi Jackson (Belton, S.C.) and Vikki Laing (Scotland) match in the quarterfinals at 1:20 p.m. EDT.
A native of Wailuku, Hawaii, Miyajima earned her home state's lone berth in the championship by winning a sectional qualifying tournament. She entered the 150-participant field as the 107th seed. But after tying for 21st in the stroke play portion of the event, Miyajima dispatched the 29th-seeded Duggleby and the 83rd-seeded Perri with spectacular play.
In her first-round match play meeting with England's Duggleby, Miyajima found herself down three holes after bogeying the par-4 sixth. However, Miyajima made par on the par-3 seventh to win the hole and finally caught Duggleby on the 14th. She then parred the par-5 15th to take a 1-up lead before she won the par-5 17th to claim the match, 2-and-1.
The 20-year-old Miyajima played holes seven-through-17 at one-over-par.
She then carried her steady play into the second round. After finishing the first two holes all-square, Miyajima claimed six of the next 12 holes and registered birdies on the par-4 11th and the par-4 14th to end the match early, 6-and-4.
A fixture in the Aztec line-up as one of the program's most consistent performers, Miyajima possessed San Diego State's third-best stroke average (77.4) as a sophomore in 2001-02. She boasted the Aztecs' best count percentage (.962) with 25 of her 26 rounds on the season placing among the team's top four scores, including a career-best, even-par 71 in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Championship.