March 31, 2003
SAN DIEGO - Junior Shayna Miyajima (Wailuku, Hawaii/Baldwin HS) has been named the first Mountain West Conference Women's Golfer of the Month for the spring season. Miyajima registered back-to-back career-best second-place finishes as well as a tie for 13th place in leading the Aztecs to three consecutive top-four results to begin the spring.
Miyajima is the first Aztec to win MWC Golfer of the Month honors since Sandy Kim and Mark Warman swept the women's and men's awards for March last season. It is her first career honor.
After a fall season in which she averaged a team-best 77.64 strokes per round but registered only one top-20 result, Miyajima has caught fire to begin the spring of her junior season and correspondingly sparked the Aztecs in the process. Miyajima served notice of what was to come when she fired an even-par 72 in her first round of the spring at the Lady Aztec Invitational. She shared second at the Lady Aztec with a 149 total and matched her career-best result set in the fall.
There was no sharing for Miyajima at the Aztecs' next tournament, the Oregon Duck Invitational. She claimed second all to herself, firing rounds of 73-72 to begin the event before finishing with a 78 that left her with a career-best three-round total of 223.
Miyajima then matched her best collegiate round with a 71 to open the Mountain View Collegiate before slipping to 76-77. She still finished in a tie for 13th to give her three consecutive top-20s for the first time in her career.
In the span of three events and eight rounds to begin the spring, Miyajima has recorded her best result (2nd at the Oregon Duck) matched her best collegiate round (1-under 71 at the Mountain View), registered her top 54-hole score (223 at the Oregon Duck) and come within one shot of her first collegiate title (T-2nd with a 149 at the Lady Aztec, one shot back of medalist Jennifer Bawanan of Kansas).
Coinciding with Miyajima's strong play, the San Diego State team has shown a remarkable turnaround in the spring. After only one top-10 finish in the fall, the Aztecs have placed in the top four in each of their first three spring events (T-3rd Lady Aztec, 2nd Oregon Duck and 4th Mountain View) while making a run at a potential NCAA regional appearance. Behind the improved play of Miyajima and golfers 2-5, SDSU's team scoring average in the spring (305.63) is more than 10 shots better than its fall scoring (315.86).
Miyajima, who advanced to the round of 16 at the 2002 U.S. Women's Amateur, has lowered her stroke average by more than three strokes from the fall (77.64) to the spring (74.50). She leads the Aztecs and ranks sixth in the conference with a 76.50 stroke average over 22 rounds for the season.