The Texas A&M women’s golf team finished 13th at The Ally golf tournament held by Mississippi State from Oct. 19-21.
On Monday, the Aggies finished their first day of The Ally in 14th place at the Old Waverly Golf Club.
A key frontrunner was senior Amber Park. Park finished with a team-high score of 14 holes par-or-better.
Junior Brooke Tyree and sophomore Blanca Fernández García-Poggio both tied on Day 1 in birdies with two, which was a team best. The duo that day was tied for 39th and 54th place.
The two freshmen Makenzie Niblett and Ellie Szeryk tied for 61st and 74th place.
On Day 2 of the event, the women’s team secured the 13th spot after missing opportunities that could have propelled the team further.
“Wish we could see some lower scores, but at least we saw some improvement,” coach Andrea Gaston told 12thman.com. “We had some better scoring today, but we’re still not taking advantage of some birdie opportunities. If we can get a couple players to start strong tomorrow and get some birdies early, then that can really change our momentum.”
At the end of the second day, Park and Tyree were tied for 43rd, and Niblett was tied for 55th on the leaderboard.
On the last day of the tournament, Tyree gave the Aggies a jump start to the finish race of the invitational by shooting a team-low score of 1-under 71 in the final round of The Ally.
The team improved on Day 2’s score by 10 strokes and finished in 13th place.
Tyree also had her best round of her junior season, shooting a 34 on the back nine.
Park and García-Poggio finished the day tied for 33rd and 53rd place respectively.
Niblett tied for 56th place, shooting 2-over 74 for the second-consecutive day.
In the end, South Carolina won by five strokes over LSU, with Auburn, Ole Miss and Georgia rounding out the top five spots.
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard from the University of South Carolina took home the individual championship at The Ally.
While A&M didn’t make the top five, Gaston said she is confident the team will improve as the season continues.
“We were happy to see the team improve each day,” Gaston told 12thman.com. “They played more like they’re capable of playing today. We made a lot more birdies, yet we need to work on making less mistakes and giving shots away. This being only our second tournament, our team still needs to gain more confidence. The only way to do that is to keep on competing.”
The Aggies will next head to Athens, Georgia, for the Liz Murphey Fall Collegiate Nov. 6-8.