NORMAL, Ill. – Northern Illinois University senior Sofia Gomez Enriquez shot rounds of 73 and 75 Saturday at the Redbird Spring Invitational to tie for fourth, the highest finish of her career, leading NIU to a third-place finish at the D.A. Weibring Golf Course in Normal, Illinois.
 
Gomez Enriquez led a group of five Huskies in the Top 10 in the tournament, which was shortened to 36 holes after Friday's opening round was canceled due to weather conditions.
 
"Sofia has been playing well," Kester said. "It shows how much practice and work she's putting in which is great to see from a senior. Good to see her have another good tournament after last week. She's played this course quite a few times during her career so it's certainly familiar for her and that showed today."
 
In addition to Gomez Enriquez' four-over par 148 score, four of her NIU teammates shot six-over 150. Carolina Klemp, Jasmine Ly, Ahra Ko and Emily Romancew, one of three Huskies playing as individuals in the tournament, tied for eighth. Romancew carded a second round 73 to tie Gomez Enriquez for the lowest round by a Huskie in the tournament while Ko and Ly both shot two over par 74 in the afternoon.
 
"We had a pretty good day, but we're still putting up too many big numbers on holes – too many black and blue squares [indicating double bogeys or higher on GolfStat]," Kester said. "We want to reduce the big numbers and clean those up going into the MAC Championships. It was great to be able to have eight people play at this event so we can get a gauge of how everyone is playing going into MACs."
 
As a team, the Huskies shot rounds of 300-298 to finish third, three strokes behind Illinois State and Drake, who tied for first. NIU was 13 strokes ahead of fourth-place Bradley in the nine-team field.
 
Among the three NIU individuals (whose scores could not count in the team total), Romancew led the way followed by Karen Liu and Sidney Jockisch.  Kester singled out Jockisch after the sophomore shot a personal best 80 in the second round, a seven-stroke improvement from her morning round.
 
"It was awesome to see Sidney [Jokisch] make such a big improvement from round one to round two and shoot her career low tournament round with the 80," Kester said. "She doesn't get many chances to play so nice to have her get out there and do so well in the afternoon."  
 
The Redbird Spring Invitational was the Huskies' final regular season tournament before the team heads to Toledo for the MAC Championship on April 22-24 at the Stone Oak Country Club.
 
Team Scores
T1. Drake 295-300=595 (+19)
T1. Illinois State 297-298 595 (+19)
3.    NIU 300-298=598 (+22)
4.     Bradley 307-304=611 (+35)
5.     Southern Illinois 312-307=619 (+43)
6.     Indiana State 314-307=621 (+45)
7.     Loyola 320-316=636 (+60)
8.     Valparaiso 322-316=638 (+62)
9.     Eastern Illinois 345-342=687 (+111)
 
Top Five Players
1.    Ali Schrock (Illinois State) 73-70=143 (-1) 
2.    Sam Paulak (Drake) 72-74=146 (+2)
3.    Megan Welch (Bradley) 74-73=147 (+3) 
T4.    Sofia Gomez Enriquez (NIU) 73-75=148 (+4) 
T4.    Avalon Woodward (Illinois State) 73-75=148 (+4) 
 
NIU Players
T4.       Sofia Gomez Enriquez 73-75=148 (+4)
T8.       Caroline Klemp 75-75=150 (+6)
            Jasmine Ly 76-74=150 (+6)
            Ahra Ko 76-74=150 (+6)
            Emily Romancew* 77-73=150 (+6)
T27.     Jóhanna Lúðvíksdóttir 78-79=157 (+13)
T37.     Karen Liu* 80-80=160 (+16)
52.       Sidney Jockisch* 87-80=167 (+23)
 
-- NIU --