College update: Emily Tubert having successful senior campaign at Arkansas
An update on local athletes competing in college.
Emily Tubert (Burroughs High, 2010), Arkansas women’s golf, senior: The former Leader Female Athlete of the Year received an impressive conference honor last week when Tubert was selected as the Southeastern Conference Women’s Golfer of the Week.
Tubert had a solid performance April 5 at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, helping the No. 4 Razorbacks to a runner-up finish. She opened with a 76 in stroke play, and then won three matches in the match- play portion of the tournament.
Tubert defeated Elyse Smidinger of Denver, 3 and 2, and Ally McDonald of Mississippi State, 2 and 1, propelling Arkansas into the championship match against top-ranked Southern California. Tubert defeated Doris Chen, 4 and 3, in her final match.
This season, Tubert is second on the team with 72.67 stroke average and if season ended today, her 72.67 stroke average would be second all-time for a senior at Arkansas. The senior is on track to set career scoring record with a 72.01 stroke average and she has been Arkansas’ top finisher in two events. Tubert earned medalist honors at the Mercedes Benz and has five top-five finishes this year.
This season, Tubert has posted a season-best 68 twice and has a season-best 213 at Alamo Invitational. She has posted five rounds of 69 or lower and ranks eighth in the SEC for stroke average. In addition, she ranks tied for 47th in the Golfstat.com player rankings and 30th in the Golfweek.com player rankings.
Tubert and the Razorbacks have won three team titles, tying the single-season record. The Razorbacks have six top-five finishes and eight top-10 finishes this year.
The Razorbacks return to the links for the SEC Championship, which will be played Friday through Sunday in Birmingham, Ala.
Katie Hooper (Burbank High, 2013) Cal State Northridge softball, freshman: The former Bulldogs standout continues to have a productive first season with the Matadors.
Hooper also continues to get her share of playing time as a starter. In fact, she has been in the starting lineup in 41 of the team’s 42 games this season.
Hooper has also shown that she can hit at the collegiate level. She is currently fourth among the Matadors in hitting with a .298 average (36 for 121). In addition, Hooper has knocked in 27 runs, which is second-best on the team. Along with nine doubles (first on the team) and two home runs, Hooper has a team-best 14 walks and scored 11 runs.
Hooper did well Sunday for CSUN in a 6-2 Big West Conference loss to UC Santa Barbara at home. CSUN struck for a pair of runs in the first inning, but UCSB countered with a two-out, three-run home run in the fourth and piled on three insurance runs in the seventh to complete the weekend sweep.
Taylor Glover singled to right field and scored on a double from Hooper. The double was Hooper’s team-leading ninth of the season. She then came into score on an RBI sacrifice fly from Taylor Nate. Hooper was one for three with one RBI.
The Matadors (26-18, 3-6 in the Big West) return to Big West play on Friday with a doubleheader at UC Riverside.
Shayne Beamer (Burroughs High, 2013) UC San Diego men’s volleyball, freshman: After helping the Indians to a Pacific League championship last season, Beamer saw playing time in his first year with the Tritons.
Unfortunately, UDSD did not have a winning season. The Tritons concluded their 2014 campaign at 4-23 overall and 2-22 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on Saturday with a 25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-23 home loss to No. 4-ranked Stanford. The team didn’t qualify for the conference tournament.
The Tritons had entered the contest with back-to-back wins for the first time since a five-match streak late in the 2012 season, and notched consecutive straight-set sweeps for the first time since 2009.
On the season, Beamer played in 15 matches, starting five. Along with 11 blocks, the freshman had 20 kills and a .978 serving percentage.