Editor’s note: The quotes in the following story were taken from a voicemail recording at the convenience of the team, which was driving back from a competition.
Illinois women’s golf team ended its fall competition with a fifth-place finish at Palmetto Intercollegiate
This past weekend, the Illini travelled to Kiawah Island, S.C., for their final competition of the fall, placing fifth out of 19 teams.
Illinois played at the Turtle Point Golf Course, where it posted a total score of 902, 38-over-par. This was enough to tie with the host school College of Charleston; however, their fifth-place finish was the worst of the season so far. All of the Illini’s previous tournaments featured them in the top three.
“It was not the way we were looking to finish the fall season,” Slone said. “We had things going at the start of the first round, and we stumbled tremendously on holes 15 and 16 towards the end of the first round. That was kind of a big blow to our first round score.”
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Things did not get better in the next round, either. On Monday, Slone said the team “threw away a lot of shots” on the course.
“Our short putting was not nearly as strong this weekend as it has been in our other tournaments,” Slone said. “We did have good and solid rounds. … But overall we just did not get the scores — strong scores put together in a single round like we needed.”
As for the individual golfers, this is the first time this season a golfer failed to finish in the top 15. In a field of 99 golfers, senior Ember Schuldt was llinois’ top performer tying three other golfers for 16th place. Freshman Stephanie Miller and junior Sam Postillion tied for 22nd place. Four spots behind them was freshman Emily Joers followed by junior Jackie Calamaro at 85. Despite the less-than-ideal end to the fall, Slone is still proud of how far the team has come.
“Overall this fall, there were a lot of positives to draw from and a big step forward for the team,” Slone said. “We still have work to do in order to reach our goals and the level we want to be. These ladies are fighters, and even though we didn’t finish in the ideal way, however, it will serve as motivation for the offseason.”
Ashley can be reached at [email protected] and @wijangco12.
