SAVANNAH, Ga.- The Ave Maria University tennis team put the finishing touches on their 2021-22 season this week, playing at The Sun Conference Championship. This year's championship was held at Savannah Country Club in Wilmington Island, Georgia, a 5834-yard Donald Ross designed course hosting the championship for the first time. The Gyrenes placed seventh in a field that featured three national championship contenders.

Alexandra Quinonez had her best tournament of the season on the biggest stage, shaving nine strokes off her previous 54-hole best. The freshman from Naples shot her best round of 2022 in the opening round of the tournament, carding an 87. She followed with a 90 in Monday's second round, and tied her second best score of the season in the final round with an 88, putting her as AMU's top finisher in a tournament for the first time this season with a 265.

Morgan Hicks had AMU's best score in the second round of the tournament, leading the Gyrenes with an 86 in Savannah. Sandwiched between an 89 in the first round and a 92 in the final round, the freshman finished the tournament with a 267 total score. Hicks' rounds moved her season scoring average to 87.6, the fifth best scoring average in school history and second best ever by a freshman. 

Eliana Tetzlaff started the week with Ave Maria's best round in the conference tournament, leading the way with an 85 in Sunday's first round. The senior added a 93 on Monday and a 90 on Tuesday, finishing the tournament with a 268. The senior's scoring average in her first full season at Ave Maria was 88.1, the sixth best in school history. It also marked just the third occasion in AMU program history where the top two golfers on the roster posted scoring averages under 90.

Ave Maria's scoring in the conference championship tournament was rounded out by Alexandria Henderson and Madeline Salvador. Henderson contributed to the AMU team score in the first and third rounds, while Salvador posted a countable score in the middle round on Monday.

Both the team title chase and the individual contest came down to the wire. Keiser led by two strokes over Southeastern entering Tuesday, but the Fire rallied on the final day to win the team title by two strokes over the Seahawks. In the individual title chase, Southeastern's Danielle Owens and SCAD's Ariana Castro both shot a 227, but Owens claimed the title with a par on the playoff hole.

The 2021-22 golf season saw the re-establishment of the AMU women's golf program. Two of the top six scoring averages in school history were posted this year, establishing a new baseline for the future successes of the Gyrene golfers.