Aug. 15, 2002
SCARBOROUGH, N.Y. - A spectacular four-day run at the Sleepy Hollow Country Club came to an end today for San Diego State junior Shayna Miyajima when she fell to Mollie Fankhauser, 4-and-2, in the third round of the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.
Miyajima, seeded 107th to begin the 150-player competition, had qualified for match play by finishing tied for 21st during the two-round stroke play portion of the event. Yesterday, she won her first two match play contests over higher-seeded competition, coming from behind to defeat 29th-seed Emma Duggleby of England, 2-and-1, in the first round and leading from the third hole en route to a 6-and-4 victory over 83rd-seed Jennifer Perri.
However, in today's third round, 40th-seeded Fankhauser grabbed the early lead and forced Miyajima to fight back to stay in the match.
Fankhauser, a U.S. Curtis Cup member from Columbus, Ohio, took the lead with a birdie on the first hole and extended her lead to 4-up with a birdie on the par-four ninth. Miyajima responded with back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11 and cut the lead to two holes, but Fankhauser won two of the last four holes to claim the 4-and-2 victory.
A native of Wailuku, Hawaii, Miyajima earned her home state's lone berth in the championship by winning a sectional qualifying tournament.
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.