Cold, windy and rainy conditions put a damper on the Ball State University's women's golf team's chance to win the Mid-American Conference Preview Tournament in Indianapolis.
After shooting a school-record 294 in Monday's first round to take a four stroke lead, Ball State shot a 307 Tuesday and finished second to Eastern Michigan University by one stroke in the 11-team tournament.
"It was quite tough out there," sophomore Kristy O'Connor said. "It was quite windy with rain in the air. It was a lot different from [Monday]."
Four of the six Cardinal players shot higher scores in Tuesday's final round than in the first round. Freshman Brittany Kelly, who shot a school-record 69 Monday, was one of the three players to shot a 7-over-par 79.
"It's a tough one to swallow," coach Katherine Mowat said. "We had three girls shot 79, who can easily shave one, two strokes of their score. We did great things this tournament, and I'm happy overall with the results."
Individually, O'Connor finished the tournament in second place and was the only Cardinal to place in the top five. O'Connor shot a 2-under-par 70 Tuesday, three strokes better than her score in the first round.
Originally from northwest England, O'Connor said she was use to the weather Tuesday because it was similar to what she experienced playing on English golf courses.
"It helped me a little," she said. "The weather reminded me of what I use to back at home."
O'Connor said the team tried to not let the weather conditions affect its overall performance and played the course with the same mindset from Monday.
Entering Tuesday's final round, Eastern Michigan trailed Ball State by six strokes.
Mowat said the Eagles' experience and approach were the key reasons why they made their comeback.
"They're the kind of team that is always competitive, and we had a target on our back after what we did the first day," she said. "We did very respectable in conditions that were challenging. We played a good round; it's just was hard to reduplicate what we did [Monday]."
Despite falling out of first place, Ball State is off to its best start in the program's history. The Cardinals won their season-opening tournament Aug. 25 in Angola. Also, if the Cardinals had won the tournament Tuesday, it would have been the first time in Mowat's four years at Ball State that the team won more than one tournament during a season.
Last season the Cardinals won one tournament and finished in sixth place at the MAC Tournament in April.
"We know this is going to be a different team for what we've had in the past," Mowat said. "We can compete with every team in the MAC and should be competitive."
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