Lady linksters second in record field

By ANN-THERESE ANNARELLA
Collegian Staff Writer

The Penn State women's golf team left State College last Thursday for Fort Worth, Texas, hoping for a good showing but not knowing what to expect.

Only three days later, the Lady Lions arrived home with a little more confidence, their first tournament jitters out of the way, and, most importantly, a second-place finish at the Midwest Classic.

The women finished their first round of play Saturday in second place and managed to hold that spot throughout Sunday's competition, finishing with a final score of 645 in their first tournament of the spring season.

"Going into Sunday, it was important that we stayed with our game plan and the strategy we had made before the tournament began," coach Denise St. Pierre said. "We stayed consistent."

Adding to the Lions' triumph was the fact that this was the largest Midwest Classic field in tournament history with a total of 13 teams vying for the championship. Only Minnesota was able to beat out Penn State to win the tournament championship, ending the two-day tournament with a score of 627. Wisconsin grabbed third place with 648. Northwestern (649) and Michigan State (652) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Senior Laura Hammond once again came through for the Lions, taking fifth in individual play with a two-day total of 157.

"Laura had a great first day. It was a good thing because we needed her," junior Lisa Francisco said. "She's always consistent for us."

Rounding out the individual scores were Francisco (tied at 12th) with 160, Darcy Isaac (19th) with 162, Sara Doell (30th) with 166 and Andrea Lavelle (tied 44th) with a score of 172. Although Jamie McClain competed only on an individual basis, she finished tied for 36th with a 169.

The Lions will be looking to improve their play even more over spring break in the Peggy Kirk Bell Tournament and the Snowbird Intercollegiate.

"I think (the Midwest Classic) helped our confidence," St. Pierre said. "It's our best finish of the year. Our confidence level should definitely be up going into the Peggy Kirk Bell."

In general though, the scores were high for all teams in the tournament. Hammond said it might have been the wind factor, and St. Pierre added the fact that most of the teams had not played on a golf course since December.

"It was nice to finish second," Hammond said. "It increased our confidence a little, but over the next couple of tournaments we need to improve our play to get the same results."

It's obvious that although the Lions are off to a great start, they don't plan on settling for second in upcoming tournaments.

"We're really looking forward to the tournaments over spring break," Francisco said. "We have our first-of-the-year jitters out and we're ready now."