Two weeks after finishing third at the UCF Challenge, Northwestern competed in yet another stacked field and topped itself.

The Wildcats placed second of the 17 teams who competed in the Moon Golf Invitational, hosted in Melbourne, Fla. from Sunday to Tuesday. Ranked No. 27 nationally heading into the tournament, NU carded a 21-under 843 — nine strokes behind champion No. 9 Louisiana State University.

The Cats finished ahead of 11 top-50 ranked opponents, including No. 7 Florida State, No. 17 Auburn and No. 19 Vanderbilt.

Sophomore Lauryn Nguyen led NU once again, tying for fifth individually with an 8-under 208. At the UCF Challenge earlier this month, Nguyen — the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year — tied for sixth on her way to being named Big Ten Golfer of the Week.

The Cats began the tournament on a good note, with only one golfer finishing over par. Nguyen hit 4-under on the first day, and junior Jennifer Cai followed with a 2-under 70.

Heading into day two tied for fourth, NU posted its best round of the invitational, hitting an 8-under 280. Graduate student Kelly Sim and junior Jieni Li both fired off 3-under 69 to move the Cats into a third place tie with No. 21 UCF.

Only two strokes behind second place Auburn, the Cats could not afford to repeat their third round collapse at the UCF Challenge, where they fell from first to third place on the final day.

Led by freshman Dianna Lee’s team-best 5-under 67 and Nguyen’s second 68 of the tournament, NU was able to take control of second place and finish three strokes ahead of third.

After entering the final day tied for 33rd, Lee made her way into the top 10 with her impressive third-round performance, finishing tied for tenth. Lee birdied 10 of her last 24 holes to earn her second straight top-10 result.

Li placed in the top 20 for the second tournament in a row, clinching a 17th place result with a 4-under 212.

With the runner-up finish, the Cats moved from No. 27 to No. 19 in national rankings.

NU will make its next appearance Monday at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.

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