Coming off the second-best team score posted on the final day at Notre Dame last weekend, and heading to a course the team is very familiar with, this was supposed to add up to a big weekend for the Illini. However, they were again hampered by inconsistent play, as their trip to East Lansing ended in thirteenth place.

The weekend began with Friday’s practice round being canceled because of rain. The Illinois women spent the day walking the course and planning strategy for Saturday’s 36 holes of golf.

The Illini opened up the tournament the next morning with a team score of 319 on the first of two Saturday rounds. They followed it up with a season-low 300 in the second round.

“We really played well and did some positive things in the second round,” head coach Paula Smith said.

It appeared that after a rough opening round, the Illini might still have had a chance to move up the leader board after posting their 300 and moving into ninth place out of 15 teams.

Sunday however, did not turn out quite how the Illini would have liked. The team did not play well and the strokes added up as they posted a season-worst 325, dropping them into 13th place, finishing ahead of only Eastern Michigan and Indiana.

“We brought our best and our worst in the same weekend,” Smith said. “We need to figure out how to eliminate the high scores and keep the low ones.”

Sunday’s disappointing round remains somewhat of an enigma, as the Illini played the round in what Smith described as, “Perfect golfing conditions.”

The players know that they did not play as well as they could have, and according to sophomore Stephanie Mory, the team’s youth played a large role in its inconsistency early on.

“We talked a lot about what we need to work on as far as consistency goes,” Mory said. “We are really young with four sophomores playing in our starting five. We need more experience in high pressure situations to get some consistency; we are going to practice by competing against each other and as a team this week to get better prepared for the pressure of a tournament.”

The girls have been competing during practice all season but it now appears that they are going to step it up a level, Smith said.

They will be keeping track of all their statistics including putts, fairways and greens in regulation this week, and competing in all categories.

The main focus of practice this week will be on competition as well as short game, Smith said. None of the Illini golfers fell victim to huge numbers on individual holes this weekend; too many small mistakes just kept adding up.

By continuing to improve their short game, the Illini women hope to shave some of those strokes and become more consistent around the green.

This weekend’s tournament was not a complete disappointment, however. The team did post its season low on Saturday and some individuals put up low scores as well.

In the second round, sophomore Casey Burden and senior Megan Godfrey shot a 72, and 73 respectively.

On the final day, Mory, a native of the East Lansing area, matched her second round score by shooting a 77.

“It was great to be close to home for the weekend,” Mory said. “Having my friends there was really fun. We also had the whole team to my house for dinner to meet my family.”

By building on their positives and working on their downfalls, the Illini are looking ahead to the Big Ten Championship preview next week in Indiana.

They will play the course with many of the other Big Ten teams to see how they match up, and have a chance to learn the course they will later compete on in the Championship.

“We will be able to see where we are really at in comparison to the other Big Ten teams after this weekend,” Mory said.