Junior Manon Tounalom seized a second overall finish to lead Ball State Women’s Golf to third place in the Redbird Invitational.
After the first day of tournament play on Sunday, the Cardinals sat in a comfortable third place with a score of 614. This put the team 38-over-par after completing 36 holes.
Dominating the field after day one was NIU (+8). NIU was followed by Eastern Kentucky (+23) and Ball State (+36). Close behind Ball State were Northern Iowa (+42) and Illinois State (+42).
The clear leading force for the Cardinals after day one was Tounalom. She notched seven birdies in the first 36 holes to end the day 1-under-par. This put the former Cardinal Freshman of the Year in a tie for the third overall spot in the tournament going into day two.
“It is such a great thought to compete as a team with an individual that is playing that well,” said head coach Katherine Mowat. “[Tounalom] really set the tone for us.”
Other contributors for the Cardinals after the first 36 holes were freshman Morgan Lewis (+14), sophomore Liz Kim (+14), freshman Hadley Moritz (+17) and sophomore Emily Knouff (+19). Freshman Dylann Armstrong (+23) also competed as an individual.
The Cardinals went through the final 18 holes in the same place as the day before. Ball State (+52) finished in third place behind NIU (+18) and Eastern Kentucky (+35).
Tounalom notched one of the best tournament scores of her collegiate career, ending the 54 holes 1-over-par. While tallying nine total birdies, Tounalom proved to be the leading force on this young team.
“I feel like my game was really consistent, and I was really confident in myself,” said Tounalom. “I would give myself a seven out of 10 because I know I can still do better.”
Also helping the Cardinals to third place were Kim (+15), Lewis (+20), Moritz (+23) and Knouff (+24). Competing as an individual was Armstrong (+33). Kim was able to pull herself together for the final round to notch a 1-over-par finish on Monday.
“[Kim’s] round today was just tremendous,” said Mowat. “The way she put everything all together was just great for this team.”
The Cardinals will be teeing off again in Muncie next week when they host the Cardinal Classic Sept 17-18.
Contact Drew Pierce with comments at dlpierce@bsu.edu or on Twitter @dpierce3cc.
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