The Tulane women’s golf program swept the team and individual titles at the 2004 Conference USA Women’s Golf Championship on Wednesday at the Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The Green Wave finished with a three-day total of 941 to claim its first team title, while Liliana Alvarez fired the lowest round of the tournament with a closing 72 to win the individual crown. Tulane receives C-USA’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which begins with regional play on May 6.

“I told them I was not going to over coach this week,” Tulane head coach Sue Bower said. “I let them go and told them to play with their instincts. They made some good choices and some poor choices. Today I just sat back and let things fall where they may.”

The Green Wave finished 18 strokes ahead of second place TCU (959), which shot a 326 on the final day. First day co-leader USF was third with a 970 followed by Louisville (976) and East Carolina (978) in fourth and fifth place, respectively. UAB and Southern Miss finished tied for sixth at 995, while Memphis (1029) was eighth and Cincinnati (1070) was ninth.

Alvarez entered the day tied for third three shots back of ECU’s Adrienne Millican, the tournament leader, but Alvarez shot a two-under par 34 on the back nine to seal the victory. She finished with a 226 to become Tulane’s first player since Pam Buff in 1999 to win the tournament’s individual title. Millican took second, one stoke back, with a 227 following a final round 76. Earning all-tournament honors with Alvarez and Millican and rounding out the top five were Mary Ellen Jacobs (230) of Tulane and TCU’s Brooke Tull (230), who tied for third, and USF’s Jill Crowe and Louisville’s Elly Leonard, who tied for fifth with 235 totals.

Among the other 2004 C-USA awards handed out after Wednesday’s final round was Coach of the Year, which went to Bower. Brooke Tull of TCU collected her third straight Player of the Year honor, while Tulane’s Mary Ellen Jacobs was named the Freshman of the Year, the second consecutive year that a Green Wave player has taken home after Alvarez was named the league’s top newcomer in 2003. Joining Tull and Jacobs on all-conference first team were Millican, Alvarez and Tull’s teammate, Camille Blackerby.

Tulane Champions

All-Tournament Team
Liliana Alvarez, TUL
Adrienne Millican, ECU
Mary Ellen Jacobs, TUL
Brooke Tull, TCU
Jill Crowe, USF
Elly Leonard, LOU

All-Conference First Team
Brooke Tull, TCU
Mary Ellen Jacobs, TUL
Adrienne Millican, ECU
Liliana Alvarez, TUL
Camille Blackerby, TCU

All-Conference Second Team
Carolin Landmann, TUL
Meghan Little, LOU
Jennifer Keefe, USM
Lindsay Hulwick, TUL
Daniella Ronderos, USF

All-Conference Third Team
Alexis Wooster, TUL
Elly Leonard, LOU
Katie Tewell, LOU
Jessica Krasny, ECU
Brooke Mangan, UAB

All-Freshman Team
Mary Ellen Jacobs, TUL
Camille Blackerby, TCU
Daniella Ronderos, USF
Katie Tewell, LOU
Mia Davidsson, USM

Coach of the Year
Sue Bower, TUL

Player of the Year
Brooke Tull, TCU

Freshman of the Year
Mary Ellen Jacobs, TUL