The University of Illinois women’s golf team tied for ninth place at 39-over 903 at the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Cup. It was the Illini’s third top-10 finish of the season and first since their sixth place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate on Sept. 21 and 22.

“Overall, we put together some solid rounds at the Cardinal Cup,” head coach Renee Slone said. “We started slow but turned things around on our second nine holes of the first round and kept things rolling for much of the second as well.”

Illinois’ top finisher Bing Singhsumalee tied for 19th with a 8-over 224, tying her second-best score of the season. Grace Park tied for 23rd at a 10-over 226.

“Bing and Grace played quite consistently on the opening day; nothing too flashy,” Slone said. “They kept the ball in front of them and in play.”

Stephanie Miller tied for 37th after shooting a 14-over 230. Chayanid Prapassarangkul was one stroke and seven positions behind Miller. Dana Gattone went 15-over to tie for 44th, while Pailin Ruttanasupagid was 30-over to tie for 76th.

As a team, Illinois shot 9-over for the first nine holes of the Cardinal Cup. It finished round one at 11-over 299 — three strokes behind No. 33 Florida State and No. 26 East Carolina, who were tied for second.

The Illini went 15-over to stay in fourth place for the second round, but after round three, they dropped five positions. They shot 24-over in the last round, the third worst score in the round.

Gattone was the only Illini to move up the leaderboard in the third round. She moved from 52nd to 44th place. Park and Singhsumalee dropped seven and 17 positions in the last round, respectively.

“We did a great job to put ourselves in contention, but we came out a little too flat in the final round and just weren’t able to recover,” Slone said.

Louisville won the Cardinal Cup with a 14-over 878 — nine strokes ahead of second place Florida State.

Columbia University’s Jacqueline Chuyla led the player leaderboard with a 3-under 213.

Illinois gets only one day to prepare for the Palmetto Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The team tees off on Sunday.

[email protected]

@32Ryno