Despite being in contention to win after the first two rounds of the Central District Invitational, a disappointing final round gave Northwestern’s women’s golf team a ninth place finish in its first tournament of the spring.

After the first round in the Parrish, Fla., tourney, the Wildcats found themselves in second place. At one point in the second round, the team took the lead, but stumbled to fifth place by the end of the day. Still, they were just one shot out of second place and 10 out of first.

In the final round, however, the Cats turned in the highest score of all 14 teams in the field and dropped into a ninth-place tie with Michigan. They were two strokes behind another Big Ten team, Michigan State.

Baylor won the tournament by 11 shots.

“We definitely wanted to win,” said freshman Jennifer Hong, who shot 15-over and finished 28th. “We just didn’t pull through in the last round.”

The team’s top individual performance came from junior Alice Kim, who fired a two-under 70 in the first round to take the lead. Midway through her second round Kim moved to five-under for the tournament, but she ended up shooting a 74 to take a one-shot lead into the final round.

On the final day, Kim shot a 79, making two double bogeys and one triple bogey over her final six holes, which she played at seven-over par. Kim finished fifth, eight shots behind the tournament champion.

“I realized I was in contention to win, and I think that got to me mentally,” Kim said. “I started playing against the other girls and not against the course.”

The team’s next tournament is the Rio Verde Collegiate, which starts next Thursday.

Reach Michael Schlossberg at [email protected].