By Travis Akin 11

The SIUC women’s golf team had its chances to finish higher than seventh place in the Lady Rebel Intercollegiate Golf Tournament Sunday, but the Salukis’ first-round troubles continued the entire weekend.

The team traveled to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., to compete against 18 other teams in the tournament.

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In the first round, the lowest score of the tournament for the Salukis was senior Stacy Skillman’s 77. The Salukis ended the round with a score of 318, but were unable to improve on that score in the second round and scored a 318 again.

Freshman Jamie Schmidt said the team did not play as well as it is capable of playing. There was only about six points between the second-place team and the eighth-place team at the end of the first round, but Schmidt said the Salukis could not get their shots to fall.

I can’t say we played horribly, but we can play better, she said. I think the course was scorable, but it was tough. The greens were hard. I think we could have scored, but we didn’t.

Freshman Elizabeth Uthoff said the team simply was not used to the Bermuda greens, which is one reason the team had trouble hitting shots.

None of us had experience playing on Bermuda grass, she said. The greens are a lot quicker, and that was a factor in the whole tournament.

Uthoff shot an 83 in the first round and an 82 in the second round for a two-round total of 165.

Skillman said she did not have any trouble with the greens because she played in North Carolina where a lot of the courses have Bermuda grass. Instead, her biggest challenge was finishing each round as strong as she started.

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Skillman shot a 77 in the first round, but her score increased slightly in the second round to a 79 for a total of 157.

The only thing that was disappointing was that I was playing much better than my scores in both rounds, Skillman said. I finished each round with a string of bogeys. I was in a position to score between 74 and 76, but the bogeys lowered my score.

SIUC women’s golf coach Dianne Daugherty was not available for comment, and the Salukis’ individual places were not available at press time.

The Salukis travel to Lexington, Ky., for the Lady Kat Invitational Saturday and Sunday.