The women's golf team staggered to a ninth-place finish in the 11-team Yale Invitational this weekend in New Haven, Conn.
Princeton shot a 602 and stormed home to steal the title from Harvard, which shot a 604. Uncharacteristically, Yale had a poor performance, shooting a 620, followed by Rollins College with a 625. Brown's collective 664 placed the team far behind the rest of the field.
Blythe Crane '08 continued to solidify her position as the leader of the women's team, carding an impressive 75 on an inclement Sunday. Coupled with her 80 on Saturday at the par-72 Course at Yale, she posted a total score of 155. That placed her in 10th place overall.
But she again lacked significant support from her teammates. Tiffany Wade '08 was well below her best, finishing 36th overall with an aggregate 167 (86-81), while Kendalle Bennett '10 had another important learning experience in carding a 172 (87-85). Christine Pappas '09 was unable to duplicate her impressive performance at Dartmouth, as she struggled in carding a 189.
Crane, while accepting that the team's position is well below expectations, was optimistic.
"We all improved in the aspects of our short game that we had focused on during the week," she said. "This performance was certainly better than those at the Dartmouth and Princeton tournaments, all things considered. What was great was the way the girls did not give up Sunday, and everyone carded a better score despite worsening conditions."
When asked about how the Bears would bridge the gap between themselves and their Ivy competition over the remainder of the fall season, Crane suggested that the team would have to make some very hard and critical changes to its approaches.
"We have been training at a level that was nowhere near the professionalism and structure of Harvard and Princeton," she said. "Coach (Michael) Harbour is working very hard right now to structure our training to become skill-specific - more in line with that of Harvard and Princeton."
The Bears will try to bounce back at their next tournament this weekend. The team will compete at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Williamsburg, Va., starting on Saturday.
