The women’s golf team proved that it has shaken off its winter cobwebs after taking fifth place in the Hoya Invitational Tournament in Beallsville, Md., on Tuesday against what captain Taylor Lee ’10 described as “a pretty strong field.”

Yale shot a cumulative 637 in the tournament, which had 17 teams competing. Nova Southeastern University took first place in the tournament, shooting a cumulative 612 after two rounds of play. The University of Maryland took second place in the tournament with a score of 616, and Campbell University and Rollins tied for third with a score of 635. Yale shot the lowest out of the three other Ivy League teams at the tournament.

The Bulldogs had a particularly strong first round on Monday, shooting a cumulative 308 on the par-72 course, finishing the day tied for second place with Maryland only five shots behind Nova Southeastern.

Alexandra Lipa ’13 finished first for Yale in the tournament and tied for 12th overall with a 158. And while her team did not sustain its second-place finish after the first day of play, she said that all of the teams who competed came out with higher scores Tuesday because of windy and cold conditions.

“The conditions were tougher [Tuesday],” captain Taylor Lee said. “None of our drives were rolling. It was pretty much you hit your drive and it stopped rolling.”

Lee said, however, that the conditions were typical of New England weather, and the team must adjust to them. Yet the conditions were not entirely detrimental — Lipa said the wetness of the course made the greens slower, which helped because she is usually a quick putter.

Harriet Owers-Bradley ’11 tied for 15th place with a score of 159, Lee tied for 23rd with a 161, and Cassie Boles ’11 and Alyssa Roland ’11 shot 163 to tie for 30th out of the 90 golfers who played in the tournament.

Yale rebounded after finishing in 16th place out of seventeen teams at the JMU Invitational in Orlando Park, Fla., three weeks ago.

“That first tournament [of the spring season] was our first since October,” Lee said. “Since then, we have been able to play outside. Prior to that tournament we really hadn’t played much at all.”

In addition to outdoor practice, Lee attributed her team’s improvement to working on its short game, especially on chipping and pitching.

Lipa said that now the team has seen the conditions and competition, it can work to improve its game through various shot techniques. And while the playing field in this tournament was certainly fierce, Lipa, Lee and Roland all acknowledged the other Ivy League teams as the team’s biggest competition and the Ivy Championship in April as the most important tournament for the team.

Roland said it was unlikely the Elis would face the top-100 teams who fared well in the tournament again later in the season.

The Bulldogs already defeated Penn 6–0 in a scrimmage over spring break, while they took down Ivy foes Columbia, Penn and Brown, who took seventh, eighth and 12th at the Hoya Invitational, respectively.

The Elis have more than two weeks to prepare for their next tournament, the ROAR EE Invitational hosted by Columbia in Suffern, N.Y.