Coming off an exciting first-place finish at the Empire 8 Championship, where the women’s golf team took home their sixth straight conference title, the Bombers went into the Martin/Wallace Women’s Golf Invitational on Sept. 26 and Sept. 27 at the Cortland Country Club with high hopes. However, the Blue and Gold ended up finishing in fourth place out of eight schools.

Sophomore Indiana Jones, who reeled in Empire 8 Player of the Year honors last week, placed eighth with a two-day score of 166. Jones got the tournament started with an opening round of 85, and was able to shave off a few strokes the following day, with a second round score of 81.

Ultimately, it was Jones’ classmate sophomore Kyra Denish who led the way for the Bombers at the course. Denish fired an opening round 77, and followed that up with an 83 in the final round of play, before eventually finishing in fifth place, and seven shots off the lead.

Denish was in contention all weekend, which she said according to her was unfamiliar territory.

“I’m not used to being in contention like I was today, so the feeling of that pressure was really new to me,” she said.

That pressure amounted to sitting just one shot off the lead after the first round, trailing only SUNY Cortland’s Melissa Rath.

Sophomore Lauren Saylor placed 30th in the field of 43 competitors, with a score of 190, while seniors Mary Rooker and Colleen Vaughn rounded out the squad with scores of 184 and 243, respectively.

St. Lawrence University brought home the hardware, winning the team title with a score of 647, beating out the host school, Cortland, by three strokes. The South Hill squad ended the invitational with a total score of 700.

The Bombers will hit the course next on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 at the Middlebury Invitational at the Ralph Myhre Golf Course in Middlebury, Vermont.