For the second weekend in a row, the women’s golf team had an impressive showing in an Ivy League invitational tournament.
Yale, playing on its own course, came out strong and finished second in the Yale Invitational, which took place Sept. 20 to 22. Penn State University took first by eight strokes with a two-round score of 591. In their first tournament of the season, the Bulldogs won the Dartmouth Invitational in Hanover, N.H.
Even though Yale did not win its home event, the Bulldogs’ score of 611 was actually four shots lower than last year’s top score.
“[Our performance was] a good place to start working from,” Yale head coach Mary Moan said. “Sunday was a good learning experience, coming from behind and being the home team.”
Although she said she thought the team could have shot better, Moan said she was pleased with Yale’s performance, especially considering that three of five Yale starters are freshmen. The Bulldogs finished ahead of all the other Ivy League schools in the Invitational, defeating third-place Brown by 15 strokes and fourth-place Harvard by 40 strokes. Penn and Dartmouth also competed.
“It was a really good experience to play Penn State,” said Stephanie Wei ’05, who finished fifth overall with a 151. “They are a very good team.”
Jeehae Lee ’06 continued her stellar play, finishing in second place overall in the tournament with a 149. January Romero ’06 came in seventh, shooting a 154 for the weekend.
“We didn’t shoot as well as we wanted to the second day,” Wei said. “But it was a positive experience.”
Lauren Ressler ’06 shot a 159 and came in 15th place. Jordanna Davis ’03 also had a good weekend, ending with a 164.
But although the Bulldogs each had individual stellar moments, the team failed to come up with the right amount of birdies and pars to surpass Penn State.
“The conditions were a lot tougher this weekend [than last],” Ressler said. “Our course is a lot more challenging than many of the others. It’s the toughest course I’ve ever played on.”
Yale’s golf course requires precision and accuracy, Ressler added.
“Princeton kind of wusses out and doesn’t come to our Invitational,” Ressler said. “They claim the course lowers their scoring average.”
Yale next travels to State College, Penn., to play in the Nittany Lions Women’s Fall Invitational from Oct. 4 to 6 at Penn State. The tournament will give Yale a chance to cohere.
“The team this year is much younger, but also much more hard working than last year’s team,” Moan said. “They have a very strong balance between being serious and having a good time.”