The women’s golf team ended its season in a disappointing eighth-place finish out of nine teams in the MAC Championships.

Kent State went on to win its 15th straight MAC Championship title with Eastern Michigan coming in second.

“It definitely wasn’t our best,” said head coach Kim Kester. “The tournament was a lot tougher. The course was a lot tougher. They held it together and showed a lot of toughness out there.”

The Huskies were in sixth place after the first day of competition, but actually started even better than that. The Huskies were in the top three for most of the first day until the final four holes got to them.

“The first 14 holes they were at the top of the leaderboards, they showed that they can play with anybody,” Kester said. “They were up there for a while and everything was going our way.”

The Huskies’ main problem was they couldn’t finish out the tournament the way they started it. After starting the tournament in the top three the Huskies fell to sixth to finish play on the first day. After shooting a 42 over par on Saturday the Huskies fell down to eighth, a position they held through the last day of competition.

One bright spot for the Huskies was the play of sophomore Casey LaBarbera. LaBarbera arguably had her best tournament of the season after finishing with the second-best score for the Huskies. LaBarbera also turned in the most consistent tournament for the Huskies after tallying a 79-83-83 over three rounds of play, finishing in 29th place out of 45. The consistency from LaBarbera was something Kester honed in on.

“Casey was pretty consistent this weekend,” Kester said. “She dropped the ball in the hole, made the long puts and kept the ball in play. Overall her whole game was pretty solid.”

Junior Jenny Niemiec also golfed well this weekend, continuing her solid spring play. Niemiec finished with the best individual score for the Huskies with a +27, which landed her tied for 26th out of 45 at the end of the tournament.

After a disappointing season, Kester and the team are looking forward to next year. Kester knows the team will continue to improve going into her second season as head coach.

“The girls made a couple comments,” Kester said. “They know what they have to improve on for next season.”