The Iowa State Women’s Golf team finished in first place at the East and West Match Play beating Wisconsin in the finals 4-1. This is exactly how to respond to a third place finish a couple weeks before at the Dick McGuire Invitational. Instead of declining in play the women got better, shot better, and it paid off with a big win in a tournament. There are some takeaways to look at from the tournament.

Resilience in the Face of Adversity

The first thing to look at is how Iowa State battled back after adversity. When round one had ended Iowa State had control of the number one spot. They shot really well and fought hard to earn that spot. However, they could not retain that spot through round two. Instead Wisconsin rose up and took the number one spot, leaving Iowa State for number two.

For some teams this would be really discouraging and might’ve led to them losing the next day, but not Iowa State. Iowa State’s team saw this adversity and fought through it. They refused to go down that easy and ended up beating Wisconsin. This shows that this team is not afraid to fight back after being knocked down and is willing to do what it takes to win.

High in the Rankings

The next thing to look at is how high each individual ranked at the end of Monday. Iowa State had four players show up in the top 20. They are Liyana Durisic, Taglao Jeeravivitaporn, Alanna Campbell, and Amelia Mehmet Grohn. This does not mean the rest of the players did poorly. In fact, Joy Chou tied for 24th and Ruby Chou tied for 34th. That is not bad, in fact that is really good considering there were eight total teams there. Iowa State has very good individual shooters and that hopefully is going to lead to a lot more success going forward and for the future of this program.

Underclassmen Show Up Big

The last thing to look at is two specific performances from this tournament. That is the performances by Iowa State’s top two shooters, Liyana Durisic and Taglao Jeeravivitaporn. These performances are important because not only were these the two top shooters but they are also two of the youngest players from Iowa State. Jeeravivitaporn is only a sophomore and Durisic is a freshman. Both were top ten in the whole tournament. Jeeravivitaporn tied for 10th and Durisic tied for 7th. Iowa State has all talented shooters, but when their two best performers are a freshman and sophomore it shows that they have a lot of talent and are going to have a lot of talent for at least another couple of years.

What’s Next

Iowa State will travel to Golf, Illinois for the Windy City Collegiate Classic on Sept. 30 through Oct. 1.