After a brief home interlude in which Virginia women’s golf secured a strong second-place finish at the Cavalier Regional Preview, the team hit the road this week for the Windy City Collegiate Classic. The tournament was played in Wilmette, Ill. and featured 15 teams for three rounds of golf Monday and Tuesday. Virginia placed seventh following a difficult end to the event.
Expectations certainly remained high with the squad putting together a formidable start to the season, and the first round at Westmoreland Country Club held much the same fate to rounds of the past few weeks. Barring an 11-over disaster from graduate student Chloe Schiavone, no Cavalier left the 18th green above a two-over score of 74.
Senior Amanda Sambach headlined proceedings at even-par, while sophomore Jaclyn LaHa and freshman Kennedy Swedick both posted scores of 73. Graduate student Rebecca Skoler also finished with a middling 74.
The day was not done, however, as there was still plenty of golf left to play with a second round in the afternoon. Schiavone rebounded from Monday morning’s struggles in unbelievable fashion, carding a three-under 69 for what would be the Cavaliers’ low round of the day.
LaHa and Sambach stayed largely stable, hovering near par at one-over for the round, while Swedick and Skoler experienced minor setbacks that left them both scores of 77. The Cavaliers went to bed Monday night with a strong grip on second place, trailing frontrunners Arizona State by just five strokes.
Despite a glimmer of promise heading into the final round Tuesday, no shift up the leaderboard ever came to pass for Virginia. Rather, the Cavaliers continued a fairly rapid decline throughout the day, with no player carding a score better than 77.
Sambach, who had been the emblem of consistency and foundation for the Cavaliers’ good fortunes through the first two rounds, concluded her tournament with a disappointing 78. Schiavone partially returned to her first-round ways, shooting seven-over while LaHa and Skoler both contributed troublesome 80s.
Virginia finished in a measly seventh place on the team leaderboard. In conditions that were more than favorable to attacking play and low scoring, there is no doubt that the Cavaliers will be leaving Illinois feeling as though they let something get away. Too much good golf in the first two rounds went in vain and that is something they will look to rectify as they look ahead to a momentous Stanford Intercollegiate in California in just two weeks’ time.
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