Winds gusts up to 40 mph did in the Grand Valley State University women’s golf team at the Dallas Baptist Classic on Tuesday in Dallas, Texas. The team struggled to a fifth-place finish after concluding Monday’s first round with a one-shot lead.

It was the first event of the year the squad did not come away with a victory.

“We had a team goal of being undefeated this fall,” said senior Sarah Hoffman. “It hurts a bit not to have achieved that goal. We are going to have to work harder.”

Hoffman captured the individual medal with her 146 total, only two-over par. Her final round 77 was the third-best round of the day in the field, helping Hoffman to her second straight tournament victory.

Meanwhile, freshman Kelly Hartigan shot a final round 81, finishing at 159 and in a tie for 32nd place. Junior Marni Weinstein was only one shot back at 160. She scored an 84 in the final round to tie for 37th.

Finally, junior Ashley Beard shot an 85, finishing with a two-day total of 161, while sophomore Veronica Ryan, playing in her hometown, carded an 87 to wind up with a 164 total.

“I kept telling them ‘Hey, you have to grind it out,’” said GVSU head coach Rebecca Mailloux. “You have to fight for every shot in conditions like that. Pars don’t come easy and it tested us at every level. It was certainly a good learning experience for everybody.”

The scores on Tuesday were greatly affected by the swirling wind that was continuously changing, making it hard for the players to really assess the correct distance and club they should use.

“Conditions brought on some nerves,” Ryan said. “You didn’t know whether to go up a club, or down a club. It was a lot of mental golf that we weren’t used to.”

The Lakers battled the circumstances to close with a 327 team total in the final round, leaving them in a tie for fifth place with Tarleton State University at 625.

Host Dallas Baptist University took home first place with the best team round of the day, 313, to finish the tournament with a 616-stroke total. St. Edwards University finished second, one stroke back, while Midwestern State University was third and Lubbock Christian University came in fourth.

“If we had played to our ability I think we could have had a good run at first,” Hoffman said. “I think we kind of lost it for ourselves. It’s nice when only one person plays bad and we can pick them up, but when four or five people play bad, there are no other people to make up for them.”

After the first day of competition, the Lakers shot a team score of 298 to hold a slim one-shot lead over St. Edwards.

Hoffman stood alone at the top of the leaderboard as she was the only player to shoot under par, carding a three-under par 69. She got off to a fast start with a 33 on the front nine, the best nine-hole score in the field for day one.

Weinstein and Beard each shot 76, while Ryan finished with a 77, and Hartigan shot a 78 to round out GVSU’s top-five.

“The biggest thing that hurt us was putting,” Mailloux said. “Even Monday, as good as we played, on the poor side of our performance was on the putting green. Everyone is hitting the ball decently, but we just have to get the job done around the greens.”

And that is exactly what the Lakers will look to do as they finish their fall schedule on Saturday and Sunday hosting the Laker Fall Classic at the Meadows golf course.

“Knowing all the girls on our team, I think we are going to dominate this weekend, to be honest,” Hoffman said. “This performance will get us just the right amount of mad. To be able to go out there this week in practice and work really hard and not take anything for granted we will kill it on our home course.”

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