The Allegheny women’s golf team placed third out of nine teams in their host tournament — the Guy and Jeanne Kuhn Invitational — that took place on Sept. 26-27. The two-day invitational took place at the Country Club of Meadville, where par for the course is 72 strokes. The Gators finished the tournament with 666 strokes as a team, behind second place Carnegie Mellon University and tournament winner Denison University.

The eight Gators that competed in the invitational were Elisa Gomez, ’25, Kelcie Jackson, ’24, Jenny Beth Brundige ’24, Sarah Pillittieri, ’23, Camille O’Halloran ’23, Kelsi Zik ’23, Emily Stelman ’22, and Izzy Krzys ’22. Through the first day of the Invitational the Gators were only six strokes behind first place with 326 strokes. O’Halloran, who carded an 80, as well as Stelman who carded an 81, led the Gator charge on day one. On the second day, however, the Gators totaled 340 strokes, falling further behind Carnegie Mellon and Denison, who each improved their day one team scores.

The team was led by O’Halloran, who carded 82 on day two, to finish with 162 strokes over the two day tournament. O’Halloran, who has been the most frequent scorer for the Gators this fall, finished in 10th place individually. Brundige was also a key factor for the success of the Gators, as she placed 12th, carding an 82 on both days of the tournament, and totaling 164 strokes for the weekend.

Head coach Jeff Groff was pleased with his team’s performance as well as their ability to play through the tough conditions over the weekend.

“Overall it was a pretty good weekend for the team, obviously it is fun to play at home in your home tournament,” Groff said. “It was tough conditions, very windy both days, and obviously it’s the same for everyone but that can be a real challenge especially on that course.

Players were also happy with their ability to persevere in a hard situation as the team hopes to build off of this in the coming weeks.

“I think we performed well, the conditions were tough and it was windy both days but overall I’m very proud and I can’t wait to see what we’re going to do next week,” Zik said.

Furthermore the team hopes to continue to increase their focus and energy through the remainder of the season.

“Our biggest takeaways are trying to keep our energy high and making sure that stays constant the whole time, and being able to fight for every last stroke on the course,” O’Halloran said. “So I think that’s a big factor for us and being able to compete as a team.”

This third place finish for the Gators follows a first place finish the week prior at the Heidelberg Fall Invitational on Sept. 17-18. That tournament win was led by O’Halloran with 149 strokes, who also earned NCAC Player of the Week as she had the best individual score in the Invitational. Kelsi Zik ‘23 also helped propel the Gators to their first place finish with a score of 156, tied for the fifth best individual score of the tournament.

After two strong weeks of competition for the team, Groff and his players are confident in their ability to shoot consistently low scores heading into the latter half of the season. However, the team also hopes to improve aspects of their games in order to do so.

“The best thing about golf is that it’s always something different, it’s always something new in most cases,” Groff said. “But as a general rule it’s trying to save some strokes around the green, have the ability to get up and down more, and hopefully make a few more putts.”

Next weekend the Gators will travel to Jeromesville, Ohio where they will compete in the Wooster Fall Invitational which will be the last tournament for the fall season. This will give the team a final broad look at their competition before heading into their final NCAC season this spring.

The weekend after the Wooster Fall Invitational will conclude the fall season for the team as they take on Wittenburg in Springfield, Ohio. This two day match will be a good test against an NCAC opponent and a good opportunity for Groff to see how his team competes with another team head to head.

Until then, the Gators remain confident and are looking forward to their final two weekends of the fall.

“We have two more (matches) to go and we still have some work to do,” Groff said. “But we’ve come a long way from the last year or two in scoring averages and where some of the players are shooting, so overall I think we are pleased with how things are going.”