The Ohio State women’s golf team started its fall season in full swing tying University of Nevada-Las Vegas for second out of 17 teams at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M.
The Buckeyes started off with a score of 293 strokes for the first round, and shot a pair of 297s for rounds two and three.
Senior Rachel Rohanna, who was named Big Ten Golfer of the Week on Wednesday, led the Buckeyes, placing second individually with scores of 71, 72 and 73 to finish the tournament.
Rohanna credits her success at the tournament to her strength and her mental game.
“My biggest strength is my strength on the course,” Rohanna said. “I think I have a little more of an advantage over most of the golfers out here with my distance off the tee and especially my irons and my mental game.”
Fellow seniors Amy Meier and Susana Benavides followed Rohanna. Meier tied for 13th place with a final score of 221, and Benavides tied for 19th place with a final score of 222.
Meier attributed her success at the tournament to her ball striking and ability to hit greens.
“I hit a lot of greens and even if I didn’t make that many putts, I knew that hitting the greens would give me more opportunities,” Meier said.
The three seniors were included on the 2012-13 Big Ten Players to Watch List at the beginning of the season.
Coach Therese Hession said she is proud of the seniors’ work at the tournament.
“I think our seniors did a fantastic job,” Hession said. “They all had a good tournament and it sure is fun to get out of the gate that way.”
The rest of the Buckeyes followed with sophomore Claudia Lim tied for 35th place with a final score of 228, junior Allison Harper tied for 55th place with a final score of 233 and sophomore Jan Chanpalangsri tied for 69th place with a final score of 236.
Hession is pleased with the overall results from the tournament and hopes the team can keep it up throughout the season.
“I think we had a solid tournament,” Hession said. “We were in the hunt around the top of the leader board the whole time, which we always love being there, and unfortunately we came off one shot short.”
The Buckeyes will travel to Chicago, Ill., to contend in the Windy City Collegiate on Oct. 1-2.