Women’s golf’s two-year reign as Ivy League Champions ended this weekend. The Elis’ biggest rival, Princeton, edged the Bulldogs by 13 strokes at the Ivy League Championships at the Trenton Country Club in New Jersey.

Yale finished in second place with a score of 960 (313-328-319), far outpacing third place Harvard’s 1012 but short of the Tigers’ 947.

“We all feel like we could have played better,” Yale captain Stephanie Wei ’05 said. “But Princeton played well so there wasn’t much we could do.”

Cindy Shin ’07, the Elis’ most consistent player this weekend, played three solid rounds and grabbed a second place individual finish, scoring 232 (79-79-74). Princeton’s Avery Kiser won her third straight individual title with a 227 (79-74-73).

Eli golfer January Romero ’06 finished right behind Shin, tying for third with a score of 241 (72-88-81). She was the only golfer in the league to hit par-72 in any of the three rounds.

“Romero had a solid first round, and Shin had a good round on Sunday,” Jessica Shapiro ’06 said.

Wei, who has battled back and leg pain throughout the fall and spring season, scored 244 (82-79-83), putting her in seventh place. Lauren Ressler ’06 and Shapiro rounded out the score for the Bulldogs. Ressler finished tied for 12th with a score of 248 (81-83-84). Shapiro was one stroke over Ressler, scoring 249 (81-87-81) and finishing 14th.

Yale’s golfers were exhausted by the two rounds of 18 holes played on Saturday. They all played well in the first round but were distracted by the difficulty of the course, which hurt their second round performances.

“It was one of those courses where you have to think carefully about every hole,” Wei said. “The greens were really hard.”

Shapiro said she felt mentally drained in the second round, which was reflected in her score.

“It was easy to get distracted, and it was disappointing that we got so unfocused when we’ve been playing in three-round tournaments all season,” Shapiro said.

The Elis were in first, ahead of Princeton, after the first round of play on Saturday morning, but their second round score of 328 placed them behind the Tigers. Despite a poor second round performance, the Bulldogs were only three strokes behind Princeton at the end of the day on Saturday. But the Tiger lead proved to much for the Elis’ third round score of 319.

Romero was in first individually after the first round on Saturday, but her second round score dropped her to fourth, where she stayed for the remainder of the tournament.

Shin improved upon her standings in the third round — after Saturday she sat in third place but was able to edge out Princeton’s Taryn Haladay for a final second place finish.

The Elis next enter competition at the NCAA Regional tournament in May.