Heading into the Jan Weaver Invite on Thursday, April 11, the SIU women’s golf squad wasn’t sure what the rest of their season may hold, but after a record-setting weekend resulted in a 3rd place finish in Murray, Kentucky, their confidence heading into the MVC Championship is at an all-time high.

“It was a really eye-opening moment for the whole team, like, oh, we can compete with (Murray State) and get that confidence going into conference,” junior Calli Smith said. 

Smith was at the top of the leaderboard all weekend, becoming the first Saluki to shoot two rounds in the 60s in one weekend and finishing seventh in the individual standings. Smith’s two rounds of 69, matched by junior Kayla Sayyalinh in the third round, are tied for the third best round in program history. They are the first Salukis to reach the mark since Secilia Ho at the Little Rock Golf Classic in October 2022. 

“Just knowing that Coach believed in me helped me become more confident throughout the rounds,” Smith said.

Sayyalinh finished the weekend tied for 12th with fellow Saluki junior Allie Santos. The team as a whole broke the program record for best 18-hole score with a combined 285 between Smith (69), Sayyalinh (69), Santos (73), senior Ella Overstreet (74) and junior Amelia Zingler (76) in the third round. They beat the previous record, set at the 2008 Saluki Invitational, by one stroke.

The Salukis also recorded the second best 54-hole score in school history, displacing SIU’s effort at the 2020 Hoover Invitational, on their way to a third place finish out of seven teams.

One shot stood out above the rest, however, as Santos made a hole-in-one in her first round of the weekend.

“It was pretty insane how everything lined up, because we were literally talking about it on the bus to the tournament,” Santos said of hitting a hole-in-one. “My coach was probably the loudest person on the course when it happened.”

One of the two teams to finish ahead of SIU was Murray State, one of the favorites at the conference championship tournament, but Santos doesn’t mind being considered the underdogs.

“We don’t have any pressure on us, and we can come up behind them without them even realizing it,” she said. “I feel like we showed that at this tournament.”

The MVC Championship is ongoing and ends on Tuesday, April 21 at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. For results, visit siusalukis.com

Sports Reporter Eli Hoover can be found at [email protected] or on Instagram @hoovermakesart

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