Before No. 10 Virginia’s trip to the Moon Golf Invitational, no more than two Cavaliers in any one tournament this year had finished outside the top 40. From Sunday to Tuesday in Melbourne, Fla., the highest finish among any of the team’s five golfers was 40th. It was a tough three days for the Cavaliers. Virginia finished with a 28-over 892, almost its worst score this year, placing 12th out of 17 teams and winding up as the second-lowest finisher among the 11 teams ranked in the top 30.
The disappointing ending came as the conclusion to what began as a somewhat promising outing for the Cavaliers. Following the first round, the team was at a proud but shaky fifth place, shooting five-over, just three strokes out of second place but just as many out of seventh. Senior Megan Propeck was seemingly primed for a brilliant performance, shooting a one-under 71 to sit in third place.
The second round was an entirely different story. The Cavaliers went 13-over Monday, dropping to 11th and tripling the gap between them and the first-place Seminoles to 21 strokes. Senior Amanda Sambach, a WGCA Second Team All-American, had one of her worst rounds of the season, shooting a seven-over 79.
The Cavaliers improved slightly on the final day of the invitational but still performed poorly, shooting 10-over and falling to 12th place. Sambach managed to recover from her unfortunate second-round finish, shooting a nice 1-under 71. However, this was not enough to lift the rest of the team out of its rut.
Propeck followed her extremely strong start with a middling 75 and a rough 78, ending at eight-over for the week. Her early third-place spot declined over the course of the invitational to a disappointing tie for 44th, along with her teammate, graduate student Chloe Shiavone. Shiavone, formerly of Notre Dame, began with a 76 and 75 but finished relatively strong with a 73.
Sophomore Jacelyn Laha and graduate student Rebecca Skoler both finished in 58th. Laha was consistent, shooting a 76, a 75 and another 76. Skoler produced a promising start with a 73 but declined with each round, shooting a 76 and then a 78.
Sambach ended as the team’s best performer, shooting seven-over and finishing in her worst position of the year. However, her admirable first and third rounds of 73 and 71, sandwiching that disastrous second round, should serve as a powerful lesson for the Cavaliers going forward.
The Cavaliers ended the fall season with some of their best individual performances of the season and a solid fourth-place finish at the Stanford Intercollegiate in October. This was less than a month after a brutal third-round collapse in the Windy City Collegiate Classic, with a seventh-place finish out of 15.
After returning from the break, Sambach made it clear that while the team remained focused on taking things one week at a time, “being able to compete for a national championship” remained the expectation for the 2024-25 Cavaliers. Every season, no matter the end result, will have its ups and down. Coach Ria Scott’s Cavaliers may not have gotten what they wanted out of their trip to Melbourne, but if this is a championship team, the Gator Invitational in Gainesville Md. 7-9 will be the site for a possible rebound.
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