Two weeks after making a comeback in the UCF Challenge’s final stretch to tie for fourth place, Northwestern once again thrived in a pivotal late-round push at the Moon Golf Invitational.
In their second consecutive tournament in central Florida, the Wildcats tallied a 2-under 286 in the final round to secure a third place finish out of 17 squads. This marks their fifth straight top-four result since last October.
Junior Lauryn Nguyen and senior Jieni Li both shot an even-par 216 to tie for 12th place individually. The pair led NU to a 5-over 869 –– just one stroke ahead of fourth-place Vanderbilt.
The first round witnessed the ’Cats get off to a slow start. Nguyen paced the team with a 3-under 69 — NU’s best 18-hole round of the tournament — tying her for third place on the individual leaderboard. The rest of the squad finished over par, however, resulting in a tie for ninth place heading into round two.
The ’Cats’ comeback commenced on the second day of play and was driven by Li, who recorded a 1-under 71. Nguyen tacked on an even-par 72 and remained in third place entering the final round.
Despite accumulating one more stroke as a team than in the prior round, NU outperformed most of its opponents, climbing to fourth place with a 4-over 292. Standing four shots behind third-place Florida, the ’Cats were still in contention for a top-three finish going into the final day.
Knowing this, coach Emily Fletcher’s squad produced its best round of the competition. Even with Nguyen faltering with a 3-over 75, sophomore Dianna Lee and freshman Ashley Yun picked up the slack, each hitting a 2-under 70.
With Li and senior Jennifer Cai adding an even-par 72 and 2-over 74, respectively, NU narrowly secured a third-place finish.
The highlight of the match was Li collecting an eagle on the par-five 18th hole — the last hole of the tournament — to allow the ’Cats to take a one-stroke lead over Vanderbilt.
Fletcher and co. will be back on the road early next month for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in South Carolina starting March 4.
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Related Stories:
— Women’s Golf: Northwestern begins new year with fourth-place finish at the UCF Challenge
— Women’s Golf: Northwestern places four in top 20, finishes third at Illini Women’s Invitational
