The Idaho women’s golf team kept things rolling this week with a fifth-place finish at the Fresno State Lexus Classic Tuesday in California.
The Vandals came into the 14-team tournament off a sixth-place finish at the Challenge at Onion Creek earlier in the month and followed it up with another solid performance this week. It was Idaho’s last tune-up before the WAC championship, which will be held April 22-24.
Idaho coach Lisa Johnson said her expectations are high heading into the conference championship.
“We’re playing to win,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to do anything different than what we’ve been doing. We can only control what we do, and if that’s good enough to win, then great.”
Long Beach State won the 54-hole tournament, led by Simone Hoey, who took home the individual medal with a five-under 211. Long Beach State shot an 892 as a team, just one stroke better than second-place Tulsa and four strokes better than third-place San Jose State.
The Vandals shot a 10-over 907 on the tournament, trimming off a total of 10 stokes from the first round to the third round to move up from seventh to fifth on the second day. Johnson said that was partly due to not playing the course before.
“We have never played this course before so it took us a couple rounds to adjust,” Johnson said.
Idaho was led by sophomore Leilanie Kim who sot an eight-over 224 to finish in 11th. Junior Rachel Choi and freshman Kristin Strankman were one stroke behind Kim at 225 to finish tied for 12th. Freshman Cassie McKinley came in at 45th and sophomore Kaitlyn Oster finished at 53rd.
“It was great,” Johnson said. “It was our best tournament of the spring. We did two things better than what we have been. We putted better and we had a lot fewer double bogies or higher.”
Idaho is a young team and Johnson said she’s been happy with the way the underclassmen have stepped up.
“They’ve done very well,” Johnson said. “I’ve been very impressed with their progress. They’re managing their games better and they’re extremely competitive.”
It will be a short turnaround for Idaho as the team heads to the WAC championship. Johnson said she just wants to keep her team relaxed in the short time they have.
“We only have one day of practice before we leave, so we’re just going to stay loose. It’s important to stay loose and relaxed heading into the conference tournament,” Johnson said.
Kevin Bingaman can be reached at [email protected]