The women's golf team concluded its fall season on Monday, earning second place in the Sacred Heart Invitational. Bruno, with a two-day score of 643 (330, 313) placed behind only Yale (623) in the ten-team field.
"We came ahead of teams that have been ranked above us in the past, which I think is a great way for us to end our season," said Susan Restrepo '11.
Restrepo shot the low score for the Bears with a two-day 158 (83, 75), earning her eighth place individually. Megan Tuohy '12 placed 10th individually as Bruno's second top scorer, shooting 160 (82, 78). Sarah Guarascio '11 had a consistent tournament, shooting 161 (80, 81) to earn 13th individually. Carly Arison '12 finished at 166 (87, 79) and Heather Arison '12 carded a two-day 171 (85, 86).
"I think our team dynamic is better than it has ever been before," Restrepo said. "You just try to do the best you can, and you know that if you play well that's going to help the team."
That team dynamic has helped the Bears finish in the top ten in every match on its fall schedule. The finish on Monday marked Bruno's second in the top two, after capturing the title in the Northern Illinois University Huskie Classic earlier this month.
"I think this fall we showed a lot more potential than we have in the past, and that will set us up for a better spring season," Tuohy said. "Placing in the top ten consistently showed us that we could beat a lot of teams that are out there."
Bruno has seen strong performances throughout the year from a variety of golfers — three different players have turned in the low score in Bruno's five different matches. Tuohy led the Bears in their first two matches, but in the third Carly Arison earned medalist honors. Tuohy carded the low score in Bruno's fourth match and Restrepo led the Bears on Monday.
"Megan has been the leader in more than half of our tournaments, and that comes from her competitive drive," said Head Coach Danielle Griffiths. "That made everybody else step up and be more consistent."
One aspect of their game the team needs to work on as they break until March is improving their performance in opening rounds. In all but one of their tournaments, the Bears finished higher than they stood after the first day. The team would often dig itself into a hole in the first round, and would be forced to claw its way out the next day.
"I think we have had a lot of times where our first round wasn't as low as we wanted it to be, and then we came back in the second round," Tuohy said. "If we could put two solid rounds together, I think that would really improve our finish in a tournament."
As the Bears enter the offseason, Griffiths encourages her players not to be passive and urges them to enter college tournaments even as the squad continues to workout and train as a team. She said she hopes her players do not view the break as an endpoint, but rather as a sort of halftime.
"I look at it as we are in the middle of our season, not that the fall season has ended," Griffiths said. "With women's college golf, everything counts, so our spring is just as important as our fall."
