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NORFOLK — The Old Dominion women’s golf team now boasts its first individual conference champion, and graduate student Leah Onosato accomplished the feat just in time.
Onosato, playing in her final conference tournament, clinched the 2023 Sun Belt Conference title on Tuesday in dominant fashion.
“It is special because I have been at ODU for so long,” Onosato said. “I’ve been with this team, I’ve been with coach [Mallory Kane], I’ve had highs and lows here and knowing that I can end with something that I get to leave behind here does mean a lot. I get to know that I really did contribute to this program.”
Onosato led the conference tournament from beginning to end, finishing with a final score of 2-under 214.
“It’s hard in golf to get wire to-wire like she did,” Kane said. “You get there, you’re sleeping on it the first night, you’re sleeping on the second night [and] the third night [and] the fourth night.”
She got off to a fast start and finished round one with six birdies. Onosato said the jump ahead of the field early was crucial for her victory.
“Having made so many birdies in that first day helped me just feel more confident about the whole tournament and feel like I could go out and potentially come back with a [championship],” Onosato.
The magnitude of her win still hasn’t quite set in for Onosato, who is still getting congratulatory texts a little less than a week later.
“It doesn’t feel like super real, but it is,” Onosato said. “It’s cool to have so many people congratulate me and just be happy for me and to have my team support me through it all. My family’s super happy. ... I guess that’s the coolest part about it, just having everybody so happy for me.”
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Kane lauded Onosato’s abilities off and on the golf course, calling her the model student-athlete.
“She has a perfect 4.0 GPA,” Kane said. “She shows up early, she stays late. She practices hard on her own. She’s a great teammate, and she’s always been so close to the top, but never on top. I think I just find it super satisfying that she was able to do this. Pretty incredible that you know, you win the biggest championship of the of the year in your final tournament.”
Onosato said she would’ve liked to not have waited until the final month of her career to get a win, but joked it was better late than never.
“I don’t think that I really was thinking, ‘Oh yeah, this is it, I’m going to do it’,” Onosato said. “It was more just going out and enjoying the last tournament. That was something I wanted to do, I wanted to get the most of the last tournament.”
With her win in Daytona Beach, Onosato earned an automatic bid to the NCAA regional tournament. It will be her second appearance in the event. She qualified with an at-large bid in 2021.
When it comes to preparing for the tournament this time around, Onosato said she plans to put less pressure on herself than she did during her junior season.
“This is an extra tournament that I’ve been granted another chance at, so I think I’m being able to go into it with less pressure,” Onosato said. “I have to do well, but this is something that I get a chance to do and I just really want to make the most of it, enjoy it.”
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Kane has sent several players to the NCAA Tournament as a coach and even played as a player herself collegiately at Georgia. Her main piece of advice to Onosato is to just prepare the way she has always prepared.
“She’s got as much experience as anybody,” Kane said. “She lost her game for a year and brought it back. She’s been through way more than the majority of her competition. So she’s very well prepared.”
A native of Japan, Onosato said the win means a bit more to her as an international player — even though ODU’s roster is made up entirely of international players.
“I’d like to see more girls leave Japan and come here and try to have this opportunity that is possible,” Onosato said. “I think you know being able to show them that not only can we go out here, but we can also win, we can go to the top. It’s a different culture, different language, all of that is a lot to learn and a lot to adjust to, but it’s not something that’s totally out of reach or totally impossible.”
Kane said Onosato is the perfect example of what to show recruits who are interested in playing women’s golf at ODU.
“I mean there’s been a lot of great players before her, including our All-American [Jana Melichova], she didn’t get it done,” Kane said. “Before her Maggie [Simmermacher], who’s now on the LPGA, she didn’t get it done. It’s hard. I mean, it’s really hard to win a conference championship, and then with all the pressure of doing it in your final year. It’s great for us, it makes us look really good. ... I think it just shows that if you’re a good person and you work hard, success can follow here at ODU.”
Regional selections for the NCAA women’s golf championship will be announced Wednesday.