This weekend the Grand Valley State women’s golf team was looking to defend its title at the Perry Park Spring Fling, and that’s exactly what it did. No. 14 GVSU led after day one with a score of 294 and finished with a total score of 894 points on Sunday.

“We did a great job and achieved a new school record for a 54-hole event,” said coach Rebecca Mailloux. “It was an overall great team performance. Our ball striking was really good, we were hitting quality shots off the tee and we stayed steady and kept our scores down.”

On Saturday, the Laker women had four scores in the lower 70s. Kelly Hartigan and Gabrielle Shipley earned medalist honors with 6-over 219s before falling in a playoff hole to a player from Indianapolis.

“We played very well as a team overall, a couple of girls had low scores,” Hartigan said. “Overall we are very happy with the way we played in this tournament, and we were extra motivated to play well and hit the ball well. Everyone’s hard work is really paying off for us.”

On day two, the Laker women continued to assert their will on the competition by racking up a great score of 894 points, a school record for 54 holes. Indianapolis was in second place with a score of 900.

“This is a great momentum builder for us as a team, beating a top contender that we will face in regionals,” Shipley said. “It is really something that we can build off of as a team, and hopefully we can back up this great play and show them what we are capable of doing week after week.

“Overall we hit the ball very well as a team this weekend, and our ball striking was on which helped to keep our scores lower. We struggled a little bit with our putting, but it will keep getting better and our scores will keep going down and going lower.”

The Laker women are back in action this weekend at the NC4K Classic in Columbus Ohio.