In shock, nervous, pondering all the mistakes of the previous day, Gannon University junior Manuela Quevedo stares, stunned, that she’s in the playoffs for the final day of the Le Moyne College Fall Invitational Monday.
Quevedo, with just the right touch, hits the ball into the hole. She stands in hope that she will be crowned champion of the two-day event.
“During the playoff I couldn’t stop thinking about what if we tied again and we had to continue into a really difficult hole,” Quevedo said.
“So when she missed the putt I had a bittersweet feeling because the girl from Westchester was really nice, but I was also very happy that I got to win my first playoff.”
Quevedo not only won the tournament and posted the lowest score, she was the key contributor to Gannon winning the overall team championship at The Pompey Club course.
At a course the team has never played on, the Knights posted their lowest overall score of 303 since 2010.
On top of breaking that barrier, the team also accomplished a milestone that it hasn’t been able to replicate since 2005.
It was the first time in 11 years that three golfers placed in the top four lowest scores, with the junior Quevedo being the leader, and seniors Julia Santo and Diana Munoz, at third and fourth overall, respectively.
This tournament gold gives Quevedo her second medal of her short career at Gannon.
However, on Day 1, her teammate Santo finished atop the leaderboard with her career-low score of 70 for the first round.
“My teammate [Santo] played really well the first day, so I didn’t really think I had a chance at winning,” Quevedo said.
The team was still leading the scoreboard after the first round of golf with an overall score of 307 and having three of their golfers in the top five. After Day 1, Santo was leading, with Munoz at fourth, and Quevedo at fifth.
Coming out strong, the Knights shot a season-low round of 307. However, the win didn’t seem as strong as it was initially thought to be.
According to Quevedo, “I didn’t know what to expect from the course because we had never played it before so I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to shoot low scores.”
This effort had to be a team effort, with the Knights picking each other up throughout the tournament and continually encouraging each other for success.
Through the comradry of the team, the Knights were able to pull off their third consecutive win of the season.
The current winning streak has lifted the Knights’ spirits and has enabled them to visualize their dream of being conference champions.
“I think these three wins in a row makes us confident in what we didn’t believe before, which is that we are as good as any other team in our conference and that we have a chance at PSACs [this year],” Quevedo said.
Gannon returns to action Sunday for the start of the two-day Allegheny Invitational in Meadville.

KISHAN PATEL
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