Perhaps women's golf coach Francis Vaughn is a fan of the recent Adidas advertising campaign, "Impossible is Nothing."
After another disappointing finish in his team's second tournament of the spring season, Vaughn still believes that the Quakers have a chance to compete at the Ivy League Championships in April.
Playing in driving rains and chilling temperatures, the Red and Blue finished ninth out of the 14 schools that participated in the tournament at the Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Md.
"It tells us where we need to be," coach Francis Vaughn said, "and what we need to do between now and the Ivy League Championships."
The women's performance at the Hoya Invitational on Monday and Tuesday indicated that the team has a long way to go if it hopes to make good on its preseason goal of winning their first Ivy League Championship.
The Quakers' score of 1002 placed them behind fellow Ancient Eight members Princeton (918), Yale (927) and Columbia (959), who finished first, third and sixth, respectively.
"Collectively, we need to improve quite a bit," Vaughn said. "We thought we were closer to the other Ivies than the performance showed."
Senior captain Meg Bender said that it was frustrating to produce these kinds of results (Penn also finished 17th out of 20 in its season opener last week).
"We just didn't play well," Bender said. "That goes for all of us. We all have great drives and putting and we know we can compete, but we just didn't perform in the tournament."
Sophomore Lisette Vitter was the only top-20 finisher for the Quakers, carding scores of 84-76-77 for the three rounds to finish 16 strokes off the lead. She was also the only Penn golfer to finish a round scoring in the 70s.
After a grueling first day in which they finished 54 strokes off the lead, the Quakers found themselves facing an uphill challenge.
"We simply weren't prepared for the tournament," Vaughn said. "Playing 36 holes in the first day isn't fun no matter how well you play, but we're anxious for the opportunity to prepare for next time."
With two dispiriting finishes in the past two weeks, and the Ivy League Championships looming in the future, the Quakers have plenty to work on if they hope to improve upon last year's fifth-place finish in the league.
"We need to improve on all facets: physical conditioning, mental and mechanical," Vaughn said. "This tournament was a barometer and that's why we play in tournaments, but we have a lot of work to do. It's not going to be an easy task, but it's not impossible."
