The Seton Hall women's golf team tied for fourth place with host Yale in the 2012 Yale Women's Intercollegiate last weekend.
The Pirates finished with a score of 45-over-par. The tournament consisted of three rounds in which Seton Hall had scores of 306, 303, and 300. Their 300 on the final day of the event was the second best single-round team score in program history.
"Going into it I knew that we could compete and to finish fourth at Yale," head coach Sara Doell said. "In my opinion, is actually better than our second place finishes in our first two events."
Sophomore Ali Kruse finished eighth out of 89 individual golfers, her third top-ten finish in three tournaments this season. In the second round, Kruse shot at 2-under-par 70, a Seton Hall women's golf record, and only the second time the program saw a below-par score.
"I made a lot of pars and when I looked back at my statistics," Kruse said. "I hit 15 greens out of 18. It's a lot easier to shoot better scores when you're hitting greens."
Kruse attributed some of her success to a session she had with assistant coach Debby Murphy, who worked with Ali on her swing the week before the St. John's Intercollegiate.
"That's why we have her on staff because she's an amazing teacher of the golf swing," Doell said about her assistant coach.
Doell said the support from golfers who didn't make the trip helped the team at tournament.
"It's important to have support from the girls back home because even if they're not in the starting lineup, they add to our success," Doell said.
Junior Hannah Basalone showd consistency by shooting 75 in all three rounds and was rewarded with 17th place overall.
Freshman Megan Tenhundfeld ended up tying for 30th overall and not far behind in 38th was Junior Christina Cantu. Freshman Karlie Zabrosky finished with a 32-over-par placing her 65th in the tournament.
The only other Big East opponent in the tournament was Rutgers who finished ninth, 23 strokes behind Seton Hall.
The Pirates do not have a tournament this weekend, but will travel to the Rutgers Women's Invitational on Oct. 5. In the meantime, the team is holding a playoff for the fifth spot in the starting lineup.
Michael Romano can be reached at Michael.romano@student.shu.edu
