W. Golf finishes fourth at Ivies

It couldn't have worked out better.

The Penn women's golf team set a goal of a fourth-place finish at the Ivy League Championships and, after preparing for grueling conditions, the Quakers were right on the money.

After lengthening their practices to accommodate the 36 holes at the Trenton Country Club on Saturday and working on their short to prepare for the potentially challenging weather conditions, the Red and Blue were ready to perform.

Leading the team to its fourth-place finish over the weekend was Melissa Aylor, who finished eighth, and Lauren Eveland, who took 11th.

"I think that the experience of all the other tournaments and all the hard work came together," Aylor said.

But the fourth place was hotly contested as Penn had a slight 10-stroke lead over Harvard after the first round.

As the rain drizzled, the Quakers found themselves needing to manage the course's narrow fairways with three and five woods, leaving them longer approach shots to the already-imposing greens.

It was very difficult to get a ball to stick on the more than normal challenging greens. In addition to registering a 7.0 on the stimpmeter, the task of keeping a ball on the green was toughened by the slick surface.

"The course was extremely hard," Eveland said. "We knew that we had to keep our heads down and play well and smart."

Penn's work paid off as the Quakers edged the Crimson by seven strokes in the end.

"We are happy that we moved up from last year [and] that we maintained our place on Sunday," sophomore Valerie Wong said.

This performance caps of an impressive spring for the Red and Blue, who stepped up their game for the second half of the season.

Still there remains more good news for the future.

Poised to make the top-three pairing for next year's championships, the team individually has plans to practice over the summer.

"We can play with the top three teams," Aylor said. "Everyone will be playing over the summer."

Over the summer, Penn will also be getting some much-needed help from a trio of new recruits. This too should help its aim to reach the upper echelon of the Ivy League.

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