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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Team finishes 3rd in tourney

Playing in their fourth and final tournament of the fall, the Hoosiers posted their top finish at the Pine Needles tournament, which concluded Tuesday. After placing fourth in all three of their previous tournaments, the Hoosiers moved up a spot, finishing third. But coach Sam Carmichael said he saw room for improvement. \n"I think we had the same play we've had all fall, very inconsistent," Carmichael said. "Having to count an 80 the first round and an 82 the second round was just really hard on our scores. If I looked at the scores, I'd have to say we're not playing as well now as we were at the first of the year."\nSophomore Karen Dennison led the Hoosiers in scoring for the third time this season, shooting a 75 and a 74, good for a tie for fifth place in the individual standings.\n"I played pretty well, I hit the ball pretty good," Dennison said. "We definitely could have played a lot better, but we still played pretty good as a team and shot some low scores. It feels a little better to be third instead of fourth, we're moving down the ladder. But we definitely have some better finishes to come, we can finish better than third."\nDennison nearly placed even higher, but triple-bogeyed the 17th hole and bogeyed the last hole.\n"They're both very good holes, but she just got unfortunate and got some bad lies on 17, but her play was good," Carmichael said. \nSophomore Mary Lidester also cracked the top 10, shooting a 77 and a 76 for a tie for ninth place.\n"I struck the ball really well, I just didn't make any putts," Lidester said. "I could have made a lot more, which would have helped a lot. I think I'm stroking the ball well, just none of our putts have fallen yet this fall, so hopefully we're saving them for the spring." \nSophomore Danah Ford tied for 14th overall with a 154 two-day score, senior Tiffany Fisher shot a 158 for a 25th place tie and sophomore Ambry Bishop tied for 52nd place with a 166. \nAs a team, IU shot a first-round 307 and a 311 the next day. Finishing ahead of the Hoosiers were\nMichigan State (603) and Kent State (605).\nThe team has high expectations for when play resumes in February. \n"We look to win Big Tens and qualify for the NCAA tournament in the spring and try to put on a good show there," Lidester said. "We should be able to win a few tournaments, I know that we have a pretty good schedule. So, we're pretty excited. Right now, we're just trying to stay in shape and keep the feel of our swings."\nBut Carmichael said he isn't as worried about winning as he is with improving by the spring. \n"I don't worry about where people finish in tournaments, my concern is that I want to see people get better," he said. "I'm not sure I've seen the team improve from the beginning of September to the first of November. I hope we'll come out with a little more of the enthusiasm for playing that we had in early September"

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