Women’s golf takes seventh place at Cardinal Classic

Women's golf takes seventh place at Cardinal Classic

By Sean Anderson

NIU women’s golf finished in seventh place at the Cardinal Classic at The Players Club in Yorktown, Ind.

The Huskies finished in fifth place last week at the Harborside International Golf Center in Chicago and hoped their play would continued in Yorktown.

At the end of day one, the Huskies sat in ninth place with a score of 333. The Huskies trailed the Ball State Cardinals who led the field with a 309.

There were two other Mid-American Conference schools in the field in addition to the Huskies and Cardinals. Western Michigan was in fourth with a 317 while Ohio was five shots ahead of NIU in eighth place.

The bright spot of the day was the play of freshmen Connie Ellett. Ellett shot an opening round of 76, tying her for third in individual play. She sat four shots behind Korakot Simsiriwong of Marshall.

Coach Kim Kester thought the Huskies could have played better but said that the weather made it difficult to perform the way they wanted to.

“I am not extremely happy the way we played,” Kester said. “ Windy conditions made it tougher out there and we didn’t adjust really well out there. Connie (Ellett) did well out there, shot a 76, it was good to see that out of her.”

The Huskies shot seven shots better (316) on day two to move up on the leader board, two spots to seventh place.

“We shot a 316 today, Kester said. “Everyone really rebounded well from yesterday, which is good to see after some not so good rounds yesterday. Another week we have a golfer who is finishing towards the top of the leader board. We are going out there with a chance to win each week.”

The host and fellow MAC team Ball State would go on to win the Cardinal Classic with a total score of 611. They defeated Western Michigan by eight shots.

Ellett lead the Huskies again on day two, as she shot a 77 in round two and would finish with a total score of 153. This was the third straight week the Huskies had a top-five finisher as the freshman finished tied for fifth.

“I played pretty consistent out there for the weekend,” Ellett said. “I had a lot of birdies out there. my putting was much improved from last week, last week I was averaging 35-40 putts per round while this weekend I was around 30 putts. I think that was the biggest difference from last week to this week.”