Women's Golf | February 7
LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. – The Northern Illinois University women's golf team opened its spring championship season with a bang at the Falcon Florida Classic. NIU took first place behind a 14-under 850 card, the best 54-hole team score in program history.
Sydney Naro placed first in the tournament with her 10-under 206 card, the best 54-hole individual card in team history.
"Yesterday, after the rounds, we said, 'let's go set some records'", said head NIU coach
Kim Kester. "Let's just shoot for as low as we possibly can,"
Jasmine Ly, just four strokes behind Naro, finished in second place with a six-under 210 scorecard, a career-best.
Ahra Ko also logged a top-10 finish as she tied for eighth with a one-under 215.
"Just to see the positive stuff that we saw this week, like keeping the ball in play, giving ourselves birdie opportunities – all of that is great stuff moving forward to prepare us to be in contention for a MAC Championship,"
The hot-shooting Huskies' path to the podium began Monday shooting a 284 in round one and a 280 in round two. NIU's 280 tied the program's 18-hole team score record previously set Feb. 9, 2021 in the third round of the Mid-American Challenge.
Day two and the final round picked up right where the Huskies left off the day prior, shooting low. The team carded a two-under 286 to solidify their 14-under 850 total card and first place standing, an incredible 10 strokes ahead of Idaho who took second.
"Conditions today were a lot tougher than yesterday - a lot more wind. So coming out, first event, to go as low as we did was pretty amazing and we saw a lot of good things moving forward,"
Naro inked her name in the history books, winning the first tournament of her career after posting a 10-under 206 total card, a school record. Naro's final two round scores, both four-under 68s, tied for the second-best individual 18-hole rounds in NIU history.
In her final round, Naro was bogey-free while her 14 birdies were the most of any golfer at the event. To put a bow on her tournament, Naro had the best par 4 average in the field with just 3.83 strokes per-hole.
Right behind Naro and in second place was Ly with a career-best six-under 210 final scorecard. Ly drilled three-straight birdies in round two to mark a three-under 69 card, just one stroke shy of her career-best. Ly contributed 11 birdies to NIU's 48, the most of any team. Additionally, Ly averaged only 3.93 strokes per-hole on the par 4s which tied for second-best in the field with Kyndall Newman of Idaho.
Ko was on fire, garnering 12 birdies, the third-most in the field to help her tie for eighth, a season-best finish. The Huskie senior's one-under 215 was just three strokes short of her career-best 54-hole scorecard, previously set at the Mid-American Challenge Feb. 9, 2021.
Emily Romancew posted a top-20 finish and a career-best final scorecard after logging a four-over 220 at the end of the three rounds. Romancew recorded her first-ever eagle on the 18
th hole of round two, helping her shoot a two-under 70, a career-best 18-hole round.
Jóhanna Lúðvíksdóttir shot a 232 and played her best golf in round three, going three-over 75 while
Karen Liu shot a 235. The pair combined for seven birdies to round things out for NIU.
Behind the Huskies in order was Idaho, Toledo, Illinois State and Western Michigan rounding out the top five.
NIU's last tournament win came at the ISU Redbird Invitational April 10, 2021. The last Huskie to win a tournament as an individual was Ly at the 2022 Mid-American Conference Championships.
"We played great golf. We also made some mistakes here and there. The quality of golf we put together, knowing we made a few mistakes that we can improve on, just shows how much better we can be. It was great this weekend, but there's takeaways we want to improve on the next time,"
NIU is next in action Feb. 20-21 at the Atlantic Invitational in Boynton Beach, Fla. at the Indian Spring Country Club.
"Winning today builds confidence going into the next event. We played really well, shot low numbers, shot under par a couple rounds in a row, played with the pressure of being in the lead. All those things are just building us up to stay in contention and to finish the task of winning."
