Navat named Sun Belt Women’s Golfer of the Week.
Last Thursday, Southern Miss freshman Ragini Navet was named the Sun Belt Women’s Golfer of the Week. The Sun Belt Conference out of their headquarters in New Orleans made the decision after Navet’s eighth place finish in the Brickyard Collegiate, a tournament hosted by Mercer.
Navet, a native of New Delhi, India, not only finished eighth at the Brickyard Collegiate, but she also included a final round score of a three under par of 69. This impressive performance marked the second tournament in a row where the flashy freshman shot in the 60s after a five-under 67 the week prior at the ULM Invitational out of Monroe Her finish in the 52-person field, while Southern Miss finished in fifth as a team.
Navet’s eighth place finish was a career-best and her weekend score of 223 was three strokes away from tying her career low of 220 on a weekend. Navet led the competition on the metric of average scoring on par threes after averaging 2.92 strokes. The freshman Golden Eagle also posted a tournament best of 13 birdies. Navet is the first Southern Miss women’s golfer to earn a conference player of the week award since Julie Baker did on October 15, 2017.
Navet and the Golden Eagles then turned their attention to the Sun Belt Championships starting the beginning of this week. After the second round on Tuesday, Southern Miss women’s golf dropped to seventh place. Navet is at the bottom of the Golden Eagle leaderboard being tied for 40th place in the tournament, shooting 72 Monday and 83 Tuesday. Momoka Ando is tied for third place in the tournament, leading all Golden Eagles with shooting 70 on Monday and 75 on Tuesday with a total score of 145.
Texas State took the top spot from ULM after Tuesday’s second round, but the window of opportunity is still open for all teams when it comes to competition Wednesday. After Wednesday’s third round. However, after the third round, many teams will be heading home Wednesday evening, as only the top four teams will continue to compete the rest of the week. The current top four in the standings and the projected Thursday bracket have Texas State, ULM, Georgia Southern, and Old Dominion at the upper echelon of the conference. Still closely in the hunt are Marshall, Arkansas State, Southern Miss, and Georgia State. In the final spots in the conference are Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Troy, Appalachian State, and South Alabama.
The third round starts on Wednesday at 8am in Point Clear, Alabama.
