The women’s golf team played in the American Southwest Conference Championships on April 12-14.
The championship was held in Glen Rose, Texas, where the Comets also competed against Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin Simmons, Concordia, McMurry, UC Santa Cruz, East Texas Baptist, Howard Payne and Le Tourneau.
The team started the tournament as the No. 3 seed for the second year in a row. With an average of 336.1 strokes per round and on the trail of two first-place wins, the Comets faced the defending ASC champion, Mary Hardin-Baylor, in the opening round.
“The last few tournaments we’ve placed first, which is really good,” said junior Michelle Edgar. “So now all we have to do is place first one more time.”
The highest the Comets have placed in past ASC championships is fifth place. The team placed fifth with a score of 332 after the first round of the championship, compared to first-place and top-seeded Mary Hardin-Baylor’s 316.
“Last week, we went to the course and played it,” Edgar said. “The tournament is three days, but we usually have two-day tournaments, so it’s gonna be more physically exhausting.”
The Comets placed first at the Hal Sutton Invitational on March 18-19, where they scored 670 in two rounds, and at the Texas Cup March 23-24, where they scored 324 after the tournament was shortened due to weather. From there, the team prepared for the ASC championship.
“We have a lot of momentum,” said junior Marissa Langer. “There’s only five of us so we really need to be on top of each other to play. We’re just really trying to work as a team.”
Heading into the last round of the championship, the team moved up to second place, with only a 16-point difference between them and conference leader Mary Hardin-Baylor. Edgar’s and Langer’s average scores this season are 87.75 and 80.33, respectively. Sophomore Lindy Patterson led the team with a score of 78 in the second round, while Langer followed closely with a score of 79.
The team played against schools they hadn’t seen this season, Edgar said.
“We haven’t really competed with the competition that we’re playing in the conference,” Edgar said. “It will be interesting to see how the other teams have been doing during their season.”
The winner of the championship will receive an automatic bid to advance to the NCAA Division III Championship hosted by Mary Hardin-Baylor in Houston on May 8-11.