It turned full circle at Cherokee Country Club.
Tennessee women’s welcomed a 15-team field for its only home tournament of the season for the Mercedes-Benz Classic. After the three rounds concluded, the Lady Vols walked away outright champions with a 13-under-par showing — edging out second-day leader Oregon State by nine strokes.
The Lady Vols and Beavers were the only two teams that finished under par for the tournament. Chattanooga, Western Kentucky and Penn State each tied for third with a six-over-par outing.
Diana Cantu earned her first win at the helm. It was the Lady Vols’ first win at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate since Cantu’s senior season in 2010 — becoming a full-circle moment for Tennessee’s fifth-year head coach.
“It’s just amazing, and doing it at our home tournament, 15 years after we hadn’t won it here, it’s just full circle and really amazing,” Cantu told The Daily Beacon. “This is a great group of ladies that are just going to crush it. This is going to be a really fun journey.”
Oregon State held a three-stroke advantage entering day three, but the tide shifted Tennessee’s way when the 9:15 a.m. shotgun start got underway. Rain was evident in the forecast, and showers littered the course throughout the round.
It did not affect the Lady Vols, however. Tennessee went on to shoot a tournament-best 11-under-par round, blowing the Beavers out of the water.
“I always knew my teams did better in tough conditions,” Cantu said. “They’re gritty. They enjoy that. When there was rain in the forecast, I said, ‘Great,’ because it’s going to be good for us. And they handled it great and they managed it, adapted and did everything they needed to.”
True freshman Thitikarn Thapasit was a catalyst for the late success. Thapasit was fresh off a four-over day in the second round, but flushed the misfortune to deliver a team-best five-under-par third round to lead the Lady Vols.
She was joined by the remainder of Tennessee’s lineup, who all shot under par for the day.
Sophie Christopher, Martina Lopez Lanchares and Manassanan Chotikabhukk added three-under, two-under and one-under rounds, respectively, to guide the Lady Vols to the win.
Chotikabhukk led the way across all three rounds, tying for third place in the tournament with a four-under-par weekend.
“We have a saying on our team, ‘It’s either you adapt or you don’t,’” Chotikabhukk said. “There’s no in between, so we went out there and we adapted.”
Thapasit earned a ninth-place finish in the tournament with a two-under performance. She was tied with a pair of teammates, Madison Messimer and Lauren Nguyen.
Messimer, another true freshman, made the tournament lineup and contributed a round-one best three-under, followed by a one-over in round two as her scores contributed to the team score. Her even-par round three did not count toward the team, but she still finished tied for ninth place individually.
Nguyen, meanwhile, missed the lineup cut. She competed in the tournament as an individual and put the Lady Vols’ depth on display. The redshirt senior contributed 71-68-72 to earn a top-10 finish, tied with her teammate pairing.
“This is a strong team at Tennessee,” Cantu said. “We didn’t have two of our players. They were in Singapore and to be able to get it done, that means we have depth, right? And everybody can come out and go low. That’s really fun. We don’t normally depend on one person. They can all show up and do a really good job for us. This is not an easy golf course to shoot under par like we did.”
Neither of Tennessee’s top finishers in the Cougar Classic, Sofie Engeseth and Kyra Van Kan, participated in the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate. That left the remaining six players who were available in the thick of conditions to reel the teams to an overall 839 strokes weekend — calculating 280, 286 and 273 strokes per round.
Tennessee tallied 56 birdies across all participants during the three rounds, adding a final-round eagle from Lanchares on a 471-yard par-five hole. That includes 23 birdies in round three to aid the battle from behind.
“That’s college golf,” Lanchares said. “There’s so many shots you can just cut from other teams that you just play your ball and wish your teammates are doing good too. So we just played all together and it happened.”
The Lady Vols carried a lead through two rounds in their first tournament of the fall season at the Cougar Classic, but failed to get the job done down the stretch. They came in second place despite shooting 16-under-par with three top-25 finishers.
With another go on their home course, the Lady Vols made up for the deficit.
“This is what they’re capable of, though, right?” Cantu said. “… This was like, let’s get it done. I think that made us really hungry after the first tournament, and not getting it done. And this is amazing. I’m really proud of them.”
Picking up a fall season win accomplishes one of the goals set for the year. But Tennessee still has more to accomplish. The Lady Vols finished 12th in the NCAA Championship last season, and that is not something Cantu is satisfied with.
“We want to go farther,” Cantu said. “We want to keep putting Tennessee up in the leaderboard.”
The players are aiming just as high.
“I think that this team can get anywhere,” Lanchares said. ”I mean, we work so hard and we work all together, we have same goals, same values. So we’re gonna do anything we can to just make history for Tennessee.”
Tennessee will have a quick turnaround to wrap up the fall season. It heads to California for the Stanford Intercollegiate beginning Oct. 17 for another three-round bout before signaling in the new year with spring golf.
Tennessee women's golf holds up the championship plaque after winning the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate at Cherokee Country Club. Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025.
