In what was a very close competition, the women’s golf team finished in fourth place in the 11-team UW-Oshkosh Invitational on Sunday.

The Blugolds shot a combined 696 to finish only three strokes behind first-place UW-Oshkosh, which shot a combined score of 693. UW-Whitewater finished one shot behind Oshkosh to take second, and Millikin University (Ill.) took third shooting a 695.

At the end of the first round on Saturday, the Blugolds were in fifth place, only 13 strokes out of first place, and just four strokes from second.

Senior Kristi Moss took third place to lead the Blugolds with a comgined score of 167. Moss’ second day score was 76, which was 10 strokes better than her performance on the first day. Moss’ score of 76 came on a course where she set the record at 72 last year.

Despite her improvement on the second day, Moss wasn’t pleased with Eau Claire’s performance for the tournament.

“This past weekend we felt it was one of the most important tournaments,” she said. “We were upset with the way we played.”

Senior Katie Hommen was tied for third place after the first round with a score of 83. After the second round Hommen had a combined score of 168, to finish in a tie for fifth place.

“Heading into each day, we were looking to improve our team score from the last weekend,” Hommen said.

Junior Karen Law finished tied for 22nd for Eau Claire, while sophomore Jennifer Prock finished in 26th. Senior Maureen Montbriand placed 31st and junior Erika Hiscox placed 38th.

Hiscox, who shot a pair of 97s, was a little happier with Eau Claire’s performance.

“We played very well as a team,” she said. “We had a couple of unlucky breaks that were beyond our control.”

The next event for the Blugolds will be the WIAC conference meet. Eau Claire is the host school for the meet this year, with the competition coming on Saturday and Sunday at Mill Run Golf Course.

With the conference meet being held at the team’s regular practice course, both Hiscox and Moss said that the team’s expectations for the conference meet were to go out and win. The team has been working extra hard at practice recently to prepare themselves for the conference meet.

“From here to the end of the weekend, we need to get as much practice as we can,” Hommen said. “The last two weeks have been pretty intense.”

Hiscox said that the practices are going well.

“We’re practicing with the mentality of concentrating as a team,” Hiscox said. “Our practice focuses on team unity.”

Eau Claire is looking forward to the weekend, and is happy to have the opportunity to host the conference tournament.

“We started (the season) with a win, and we would like to end with a win,” Moss said. “We want to play well so we can go back to nationals.”

Eau Claire won it’s season-opening tournament, which was also held at Mill Run. In that meet, the Blugolds beat all of the teams that they will be competing against in the conference meet. Moss finished in a three-way tie for fourth in that meet, while Hommen finished eighth.

Last year, the Blugolds finished second to Oshkosh in the WIAC meet, despite claiming the best second-day score overall. Moss finished second in the conference meet last year, with Prock and Hommen also breaking into the top ten.