NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Lipscomb Women's Golf hosted The Nashville Invitational on Monday and Tuesday. The squad finished second in a field of 16 teams while Ava Bankston captured the Individual Championship. 
 
The Bisons used a strong final round of play to climb up two spots to capture the team runner-up title at the second-annual Nashville Invitational. On a cold and windy Monday morning, the Bisons started its tournament with a score of 304 in the first round, but continually improved throughout the event. Lipscomb improved with a 293 in the second round to sit fourth after the first day of competition. The team then fired off the best round of the tournament by any squad with a 290 over the final 18 holes to finish second in the field. 
 
The Bisons finished 29 strokes ahead of ASUN competitor Austin Peay and more than 30 strokes better than ASUN foes North Alabama and Bellarmine. Lipscomb also finished ahead of local rival Belmont and in-state rival, Memphis. 
 
Ava Bankston led Lipscomb throughout the tournament en route to her first career tournament victory. Bankston started off her tournament by posting a 74 and 73 in the first and second rounds, respectively, to tie for seventh after the first 36 holes of competition, but caught fire over the final round. In her first nine holes on Tuesday, she connected on two birdies to go along with a bogey and six pars to sit at (-1) after the first nine holes. After the turn, Bankston was steady with pars on the next eight holes. She sat two back from the lead heading into the final hole. On 18, she hit a beautiful drive to the middle of the fairway and then connected on a solid up-and-down for a birdie to end her round with a 70 (-2). After her competition carded a double bogey on the final hole, Bankston became the individual champion with a 217 (+1) on the tournament. All told, Bankston had 10 birdies and 33 pars. 
 
Savannah Howell also posted a top-10 finish for the Bisons; finishing tied for ninth. She carded a 79 in the first round before improving with a 70 and 72 in the second and third rounds, respectively. All told, she finished with a 221 (+5) with seven birdies. 
 
Katya Tibbetts finished in the top-25, tying for 22^nd with a 226 (+8). She started slow, battling the elements in the first round with a 78, but settled in with a 74 in both of the final rounds with seven birdies. 
 
Lipscomb team scoring was rounded out by Casey Yu and Maria Alcocer. Yu finished tied for 32^nd with round scores of 73, 82, 74 (+11) while Alcocer carded scores of 80, 76, 78 (+12) to finish tied for 55^th.
 
The Bisons had two individuals in the field in Sonja Tibbetts and Christina Surcey. Surcey tied for 22^nd with a 226 – 77, 77, 72 (+10) while Sonja Tibbetts tied for 49^th with a 233 - 74, 83, 76 (+13). 

FULL RESULTS
 
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Lipscomb will compete in its final regular season tournament on April 6-8 at the 22^nd "Mo"Morial Invitational hosted by Texas A&M.