Nov. 11, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The Penn State women's golf fall season has come to an end. Here are some of the highlights from the fall season and what to look forward to for the spring.
For the first time since 2000-03' the Nittany Lions won back-to-back titles at their home tournament, the Nittany Lion Invitational. That overall great team performance led to five different players finishing inside the top 10, with the sophomore Jackie Rogowicz (Yardley, Pa.) leading the way in third.
The Lions finished in fifth place at the East & West tournament going undefeated in match play, beating Nebraska 4-1 and UC Davis 3-2. In the Cougar Classic and Landfall Tradition, two larger and intensely competitive tournaments, the team placed 16th and 15th, respectively.
When talking to head coach Denise St. Pierre, she stated that "The fall season was up and down." She pointed out that "the good news is we are now getting five contributing scores," but "the difficult part is our low scores need to be stronger."
Looking ahead towards the spring season, the team looks to be able to accomplish those goals and prepare accordingly, "When we turn that around this spring we will be in the mix for post season play," said by Denise St. Pierre.
Penn State will be competing in five tournaments in the spring season, three of which they played in last year but still the team "has some very competitive tournaments to compete in which always gives you an opportunity to move up in the rankings if you finish strong."
They begin in Miami, Fla. for the Hurricane Invitational, then go on a stretch of familiar tournaments the River Landing Classic, Briar's Creek Invitational, and Bryan National Collegiate, and finish at the Lady Buckeye.
The Nittany Lions had their best performance of the spring season last year at the River Landing Classic. The team finished second out of 13 teams, while Rogowicz recorded her second top 10 finish, placing ninth.
In last year's Briar's Creek Invitational, sophomore Cara Basso (Downingtown, Pa.) had a standout performance shooting her career low round score of 69, while classmate Lauren Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) finished just outside the top ten with a tournament score of 215 1-under. The team finished 13th out of 18 teams.
The third tournament that the Lions will be competing in consecutive years is the Bryan National Collegiate. Last year they shot a 946 and finished 13th out of 15 teams.
Overall coach Denise St. Pierre believes her players are ready for the challenge and will be "ready to prepare themselves over the off season to be the very best in the second half of our season."