Women’s golf had some solid individual showings and a 10th-place finish (304-323-300) out of 18 teams at the Rio Verde Invitational March 7 to 9 in Rio Verde, Ariz..

NIU’s 927 10th-place finish was the fourth-lowest 54-hole score in program history

“It was a three-day event; we had two out of three great days,” said head coach Kim Kester. “The middle day hurt us a little bit, but the girls played extremely well. It was great to beat some schools. We were six shots from fourth place, and looking at the rankings, we finished a lot higher than the rankings so called projected us to finish.

“Everything is moving in the right direction the girls are doing extremely well, putting in a lot of effort, and it’s paying off on the golf course.”

Xavier won the event with a 900, Montana took silver, carding a 905, and fellow Mid-American Conference squad Toledo finished in third with a 914.

University of Montana’s Tara Green finished the tournament as the Rio Verde Invitational champion with a 219 score.

Freshman Sydney Brickey started the tournament on Friday shooting a 71, which allowed her to finish day one in the overall lead out of the 96 golfers. NIU finished the opening round in seventh place out of 18 with a 304.

“Syd was leading the field after the first day,” Kester said. “It was kind of unfamiliar territory for her. She never led a tournament before, and we knew her second day was going to be a little bit higher just because the nerves were going a lot more than they were for the first day. She bounced back decent with her third round.”

The second and third rounds didn’t go as well for the freshman, as she recorded an (85-78) to finish with a 234, which was good enough for a 37th-place finish.

Senior Jenny Niemiec had her best spring outing thus far, carding a (77-77-74), which allowed her to finish in 16th place. Her 228 not only led the Huskies, but it was also the ninth-lowest score in NIU history. “She kept the ball in play, and [Sunday] she made a huge putt on No. 1 for birdie,” Kester said in a news release. “She got the birdies when she could and took the pars when she could.”

Sophomore Connie Ellett, who came into day one of the tournament as the reigning MAC golfer of the week, carded a 78 during the first round and followed that up with a 77-81 (236) to finish 45th.

Freshman Lena Gautier continued to impress. She started the third day in 66th place but jumped up to 37th due in big part to her final-round 72. The third round score along with her (78-84) totaled out to a 234; the same score as fellow freshman Brickey.

Sophomore Samantha Coyne finished her final round out strong, firing a 76 (80-85 241). She rounded out the NIU participants, finishing in 63rd.