Northwestern’s tough fall schedule concludes with a trip to the West Coast this weekend.
The Wildcats have taken on some of the best teams in the country so far this season and have held their own with two fourth-place finishes and a fifth. However, this weekend may be the toughest of them all as nine top-25 teams in the latest Golfweek rankings, including four of the top five, will tee it up with the Cats at the Stanford Intercollegiate from Friday to Sunday.
Although NU hasn’t had much success against the top 25, beating only two of the eight ranked squads it has faced this season, the Cats are ranked 23rd by Golfweek and hold a 32-10 overall record. NU has not finished behind anyone outside the top 50. That streak should stay intact this weekend as only three squads not inside the top 50 will be in the field.
Sophomore Kaitlin Park leads the Cats with a 73.56 scoring average, and junior Hana Lee is not too far behind with a 74.11 average, which includes a team-best three rounds of par or better. The duo comprises two of the three NU players with a top-10 finish, the other being sophomore Suchaya Tangkamolprasert, who finished in a tie for ninth last time in the Windy City Collegiate Classic. The Cats’ other two starters, freshman Kacie Komoto and sophomore Elizabeth Szokol, both have top-30 finishes to their credit and are averaging less than 76 shots per round.
Senior Devon Brown will also make the trip with NU and compete as an individual after a respectable 46th place finish in her only other tournament of the season, the Windy City Collegiate.
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