Southern Illinois University
Redbird Invitational
Salukis finish ninth at Redbird Invitational
09/05/2016 | 7:05:00 | Women's Golf
Southern Illinois completed its season-opening tournament today at the Redbird Invitational in Bloomington, Ill. with a ninth-place finish.
"I didnt think that we played as well as we could have. We definitelty have plenty of room for improvement," head coach Alexis Mihelich said. "No one played really terrible, but our scoirng scores werent low enough. Everyone was in high to mid 70's. We need to be in mid to low 70's."
The Salukis started the day in seventh, but had a slow start to the round that sealed the team's fate. The second half of the closing round went better for SIU, however. As a team the Salukis combined to card six birdies and one eagle on the final-nine holes. The eagle came from senior Xianmei Jin on the drivable par-4 fifth hole when she put her tee shot six feet from the hole and converted her putt for an eagle.
SIU's three-round score of 926 was just shy of seventh place Bowling Green State and eighth place Ohio. Just two strokes kept Southern out of a seventh-place finish.Â
"We havent had that many practices because we play the intrasquad tournament to see who goes to the first tournament," Mihelich said. "It's really kind of hard to have a lot of conductive practices to work on our deficincies. The first tournament is always challenging since it the first tournament back."
Boston College and Northern Illinois were the class of the event. The two teams were tied for first following the second round and continued to battle throughout the third. The Eagles eventually came out on top, edging NIU by two strokes. Florida Gulf Coast finished in third, but was 10 strokes back of second place Northern.
Evansville's Kayla Katterhenry was the tournament's champion thanks in large part to her opening round 65. The 2015-16 MVC All-Conference selection shot a 68 in the closing round to clinch the victory at 8-under par. Junior Alice Ho turned in Southern's best individual result with a tie for 23rd  at 13 strokes over par.
"Our team chemistry is really good. These five girls really seem to get along when they really want it. They really wanted to perform well and they bonded," Mihelich said. "You can kind of tell that this team is really close. So that was really positive and that will steamroll as the semester goes on."
The Salukis will be back on the course in one week at the Murray State Drake Creek Invitational in Ledbetter, Ky. on Sept. 12-13.
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Players Mentioned
