DeKALB – The Huskies’ women’s golf team placed fifth at their final invite of the fall, the Charlotte Invitational, along with two top ten individual finishes.

NIU finished with a score of 41 over par, 905. The Huskies finished day one in third place behind strong performances from graduate student Sydney Naro and junior Jasmine Ly.

“We had a great second round,” head coach Kim Kester said. “We just didn’t have great first and third rounds, which kind of cost us a little bit.”

The team finished in fifth place behind University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a score of 39 over par, 903. NIU finished ahead of East Carolina University who finished with a score of 52 over par, 916.

The top individual finisher for the invitational was Kendall Turner, a redshirt junior from James Madison University. Turner finished with a score of two over par, 218. Xavier University took home first place with a score of 25 over par, 889.

Naro finished as NIU’s top performer on the individual leaderboard with a score of six over par, 222. On day one, Naro was tied for second place after putting up a score of two over par, 146.

Ly was the Huskies next finisher, as she finished tied for sixth place with four other players. Ly finished with a score of seven over par, 223. After day one, Ly was also tied for second place with her teammate, Naro, with a score of two over par, 146.

“Both (Ly and Naro) are putting themselves in contention to win tournaments. And it’s great that we have two players doing that. We really haven’t had much of that in the past consistently. We just have to get a couple others playing better,” Kester said.

Junior Emily Romancew was the Huskies’ next best scorer; she tied for 17th place with four other golfers. Romancew finished with a score of 13 over par, 229.

This was the Huskies’ third top ten finish this fall season, with this finish coming in their last event of the fall season. NIU earned a third place finish at the Johnie Imes Invitational in Columbia, Missouri as well as a fourth place finish in their first invitational of the season, the Redbird Invitational which took place in Normal, Illinois.

“We’ll do a lot of conditioning in the winter,” Kester said. “Try to build some swing speed, hit it further. And then we’ll start working a lot on control with our approach shots and with our wedges.”

The Huskies’ next competition, Mid-American Match Play, will take place from Feb. 6 to Feb. 7 in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club.