SIUC sophomore Andrea Walker may be reaching for aspirin today, but her teammates hope she does not find a cure for her play.

Bothered by a sore back most of the spring, the Cedar Lake, Ind., native helped the Saluki women’s golf team finish second in its Saluki Invitational by firing a career-best 74 at Hickory Ridge Golf Course Monday afternoon.

Walker and senior teammate Stacy Skillman finished in the top five for the tournament in leading SIUC to its second consecutive runner-up finish at the tournament with a two-round total of 633. The University of Missouri captured the team title with a score of 627.

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My back has been bothering me for what seems like forever, but I always seem to play better when it’s sore, Walker said. I can deal with it for the next three weeks.

Skillman hopes the sore back continues to improve Walker’s play, and the senior co-captain is willing to drastic measures to prevent its cure.

We keep telling her if her back ever starts getting better, we’re going to kick her in the back because she swings so much better with her back hurt, Skillman said with a laugh.

After a first-round 82 Sunday, Walker fired a two-day total of 156 and tied medalist Letitia Moses of Missouri for low honors Monday. But it was Missouri’s tenacious play with Moses and teammate Stefanie Mitchell earning the top two places that impressed Walker.

Missouri is a good team they’re tough, Walker said. They came here last year, but we gave them a run for the money this year. We played really well today, and you can only control what you do, so we were really happy with how we played today.

Skillman put together one of her best performances of the season by firing rounds of 78 and 75 for third place with a total of 153. A string of three consecutive birdies on the 13th, 14th and 15th holes opened the door for Skillman’s solid finish.

I scrambled around a lot, and I was able to get the ball in the hole, Skillman said. It wasn’t that I was doing anything so fabulous, it was just one of those days where you have a miss but it ends up turning out OK.

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Those three holes right there, and especially 15 being a challenging hole, got me going and brought me in, and I was pretty confident going into the last few holes. That really helped.

Rounding out the Salukis’ efforts were an 11th-place finish by senior Jamie Smith (160), freshman Liz Uthoff in 27th (166), freshman Jamie Schmidt in 45th (174) and sophomore Renee Myers in 60th (179). Junior Jami Zimmerman in 35th (168) and sophomore Jane Starkweather in 64th (181) competed as individuals and did not count on the team score.

They played very well, Saluki coach Diane Daugherty said. I would have not even played and taken the 309, that’s for sure.

The wind was a factor but one that should prepare the team for the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Wichita, Kan., April 20-21.

The whole Midwest has been just windy, so everybody has played in this the last week or so, Daugherty said. Last week, I hated to but we played in it every day. Playing in this for two days helped us prepare for this (tournament) and hopefully for conference.

The Salukis travel to Bloomington, Ind., Saturday and Sunday for the Indiana Invitational.