The ISU women’s golf team wrapped up its fall season last week with a seventh-place finish at the Aloha Purdue Collegiate in Kauai, Hawaii. It was the team’s second consecutive seventh-place finish and its third of the season.

The Cyclones started the final day of play in last place in the tough nine-team field, but they battled back to gain two spots in the last two rounds. They were led by junior Jessica Shin, who had her best performance of the season. Her final score of 225 led the Cyclones, and she finished in a tie for 16th place overall.

“She [Shin] had her best showing of the fall,” said coach Christie Martens. “It was really exciting for her to be able to get that confidence back. I think with continuing to work on her swing fundamentals through the winter, there’ll be no stopping her this spring.”

As has been the case most of the season, Iowa State had to compete with a deep field of highly ranked teams. This one included seven teams ranked in the top 30 nationally.

“It was a great field for us to get out and kind of show ourselves against a field of that caliber,” Martens said. “I think that we played better every single round, which is always one of my goals.”

One standout for the Cyclones throughout the fall season has been junior Karly Pinder, who was named to the Canadian national amateur team last summer. Pinder, a native of Exeter, Ontario, recorded two top-10 finishes this fall. She also recorded a career-best finish at the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate, which tied for the fifth-best tournament total in school history.

“There are a lot of mental aspects to golf, and once you get there, you can stay in the zone,” Pinder said. “I’m pretty confident in my game and my abilities.”

With their fall season in the books, the Cyclones will get a break from competition until late February when they will start their spring season. Until then, Martens said, they will continue to work on improving different aspects of their game.

“We’ll continue to work hard in the weight room,” she said. “We have a strength coach who does a great job of improving flexibility and core strength. Then we’ll start practicing again in January.”

The spring season begins Feb. 23 to 25 with the Lady Puerto Rico Classic in San Juan, Puerto Rico.