DALLAS, Texas – The Northern Illinois University women’s golf team closed out the Trinity Forest Invitational with its best round of the tournament and finished 11th in the 16-team field. Junior Ahra Ko (Suwanee, Ga./North Gwinnett HS) led the way for the Huskies with a one-over par 73 Tuesday to finish tied for 13th.
The Huskies moved up from 12th to 11th place with a final round 299 to finish one stroke ahead of 12th-place Memphis. Texas Tech, the No. 23 ranked team in the country, shot even par 288 on Tuesday and won the tournament by 14 strokes over second place Tulsa.
NIU improved its team score every round after opening the tournament with a 323 while battling 20 mile per hour winds and sub-freezing temperatures, then following that with a 305 in the afternoon’s second round.
“Yesterday was super tough,” said NIU head coach Kim Kester. “It was 29 degrees with 20-plus miles per hour winds and we just had too many big numbers. It was good to see us bounce back today. Today we made a better step toward the end goal of the MAC Championship. We’re going to see these types of conditions when we get to the MAC [Championship] so it’s good to get experience, especially with a young line-up like we had for this tournament.”
Ko posted the lowest score for NIU in all three rounds with scores of 78, 74 and 73 on the par 72 Trinity Forest Golf Club course to finish at nine-over par 225, her highest placement of the season. Ko tied for the tournament lead with 10 birdies over the 54-hole event.
“Ahra is capable of shooting low numbers and we saw a lot of good things from her this week,” Kester said. “She tied for most birdies in the tournament, and it was great to see her play better going into the next tournament in Georgia.”
Ko was followed on the Huskie leaderboard by freshman Jóhanna Lúðvíksdóttir (Reykjavik, Iceland/Commercial College of Iceland), who fired a two-over par 74 for the second straight round to finish tied for 35th at 14-over par 230. Sophomore Jasmine Ly (Windsor, Ontario, Canada/Holy Names HS) also shot 74 on Tuesday in a round that included an eagle on the par 5 fifth hole.
NIU is next in action at the Pinetree Collegiate in Kennesaw, Georgia on Monday and Tuesday, March 21-22.
— NIU —
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