Women's golf takes third place at William & Mary Invitational

Perhaps some doubt was cast last weekend at the William & Mary Invitational on the women's golf team's plans to reclaim the Ivy League title. With three weeks left before the league championships, the Tigers fell one stroke shy of the defending champion Yale Bulldogs.

Princeton posted back-to-back rounds of 311 to finish third in the field of twenty teams, four strokes behind tournament winner James Madison. Juniors Avery Kiser and Meg Nakamura and freshman Sharla Cloutier shared the team lead for the Tigers, shooting 154 over two days, good enough to tie them for sixth overall in the tournament.

Freshmen Alexis Etow and Caitlin Sullivan were Princeton's other scorers, shooting 160 and 164, respectively.

Yale sophomore January Romero ran away with individual honors, besting the field by six strokes with a 145. Romero, the Ivy League runner-up last year as a freshman, managed to shave seven strokes off that score with a sparkling final-day 69, three under par, to help the Bulldogs hold on to second place.

The loss was not without consolation. The last time the Tigers saw James Madison was at the Penn State Invitational last October, when the Dukes won the overall tournament championship, shooting a scalding final-day 295 to stave off the host Nittany Lions. In that tournament, the Tigers also posted a strong final day, but still finished an astonishing 42 strokes back of the Dukes for the three-day event.

Although Princeton made up substantial ground on James Madison to close within four strokes by the tournament's end, the loss to Yale was perplexing for the Tigers, who seemed to be the early favorites heading into this month's Ivy League Championships in Trenton.

After finishing ten strokes behind the Bulldogs at last year's championships, the Tigers have swept them in four tournaments this year.

In the fall, the Tigers faced the Bulldogs on consecutive weekends as both teams hosted early-season matches. The Tigers won both invitationals, swamping the Bulldogs by 19 strokes in their own tournament, and then pulling out a five-stroke victory at the Yale Invitational. The Tigers' three-day total of 942 at the Penn State Invitational also left them 16 strokes up on the Bulldogs.

The two teams also met earlier this season, when Princeton rallied on the final day and came out eight strokes ahead of Yale.

Yale shot out in front of the field early on Saturday in Williamsburg, with an opening round team score of 307, one stroke ahead of host William & Mary, while the Tigers lingered in fourth place. Yale wilted on the second day, however, its score swelling to 314 and opening the door for the competition. James Madison leapfrogged the Bulldogs with a 308, but the Tigers second 311 left them just short.

Princeton will see Yale and James Madison again in two weeks as the Dukes host the James Madison Invitational.