NORMAL, Ill.  – The Northern Illinois University women's golf team wrapped up play at its 2023-24 season opening tournament Monday with a fifth-place finish at the Redbird Invitational, played at the par 72, 6,093 D.A. Weibring Golf Club in Normal, Illinois.
 
"This tournament was similar to what we saw during qualifying," said NIU head coach Kim Kester, who began her 11th season directing the NIU women's golf program with this tournament. "We would have three really good rounds and be searching for the fourth. It was good to see different players come in and put up good rounds, great to see Caroline Kent in the last two rounds [with back-to-back 73s] and of course Jasmine [Ly] was steady as usual."
 
Senior Jasmine Ly (Windsor, Ontario, Canada/Holy Names HS) tied for third with rounds of 73-70-72 to lead NIU with a score of one-under par 215 for the tournament. Fellow senior Emily Romancew (Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada/Ecole Secondaire Des Sources) posted a Top 20 finish, tying for 16th after shooting 78-70-74 to finish at six-over par 222.
 
"Jaz keeps the ball in play, puts herself in make-able birdie positions and that allows her to score," Kester said. "It's easy on this course to get into the trees, and even when she got into some trouble, she was able to rebound well."    
Graduate student Sydney Naro (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Hills International Golf Academy) followed a first round 70 with back-to-back 77s to tie for 25th at eight-over 224 with junior Caroline Kent (Frisco, Texas/iUniversity Prep) one stroke back. After opening with a 79 in Sunday's first round, Kent shot one-over 73 in each of the final two rounds to tie for 30th.
 
Johanna Ludviksdottir (Reykjavik, Iceland/Commercial College of Iceland) shot her best round of the tournament in Sunday's second round with a 73 en route to an 18-over 234 score over the 54-hole event.
 
After opening the tournament, and the season, with a team total of 300 Sunday morning, NIU came back to shoot a two-under 286 in Sunday's second round before finishing with a team score of eight-over 296 Monday. The Huskies fifth-place finish (out of 16 teams) was five strokes behind St. Thomas for fourth and eight back of third-place South Dakota State. Bradley claimed the team title by one stroke over host Illinois State. Click the link above to see all the scores.
 
NIU is back in action next week Sunday and Monday, Sept. 17-18, at the Mary Fossum Invitational, hosted by Michigan State University at Forest Akers West Golf Course in Lansing, Michigan.
 
NIU Scores
T3. Jasmine Ly 73-70-72 = 215 (-1)
T15. Emily Romancew 78-70-74 = 222 (+6)
T25. Sydney Naro 70-77-77 = 224 (+8)
T30. Caroline Kent 79-73-73 = 225 (+9)
T62. Johanna Ludviksdottir 81-73-80 = 234 (+18)
*80. Karen Liu 79-80-82 = 241 (+25)
 
*Played as individual
 
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