Only 18 holes are in the books at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, but the No. 24 ISU women’s golf team is fated to miss out on a chance for a tournament victory.

Unlike a typical 54-hole stroke play tournament, this week’s format divides the field of 16 into two brackets of eight teams for 54 holes of match play on Saturday and Sunday.

The brackets were determined by results in Friday’s first round of stroke play and Iowa State missed out on the upper bracket by a mere three strokes.

With a 20-over-par team total of 308, the Cyclones tied with host Georgia for 11th place.

As a result, Iowa State will face Indiana on Saturday morning. The Cyclones will then face either No. 20 Michigan State or Georgetown on Saturday afternoon before a concluding match Sunday morning.

On Friday, the Cyclones were led by sophomore Cajsa Persson, whose three-over-par round of 75 was good for 22nd place individually.

Iowa State’s next best effort was from the senior duo from Bangkok, Sasikarn On-iam and Prima Thammaraks. Both posted totals of 76 to finish in a tie for 30th place and co-led the team with three birdies.

Junior Chonlada Chayanun posted an 81, while freshman Carmen Vidau posted 85.

By being seeded into the lower “Black” bracket, Iowa State will miss out on an opportunity to face the three top-10 teams that made the “Red” bracket, including No. 1 USC.

No. 24 Iowa State will be one of the favorites to win the Black bracket as No. 20 Michigan State is the only other top-25 team.