In the team’s second match of the season, Amherst women’s golf came out strong again to claim second place in the Mount Holyoke Invitational. The purple and white played on the par 72 Orchards Golf Course in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The team placed second in a field of 14 teams, and three of its five scoring golfers placed in the top 10.

After day one, Amherst was in third place with a score of 314. Captain Jamie Gracie ’17 led the team shooting 76 and the rest of the team followed closely behind. Williams posted a score of 300 on Saturday and New York University fell into second place with 305.

The purple and white stepped up its game on Sunday to clinch second place, taking over third place from New York University (305, 318, 623). Amherst’s team score was 621 over the weekend (314, 307). Williams took the top spot on the podium with a total score of 601 (300, 301). Middlebury came in fourth and was followed by Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Long Island University—Post, Vassar, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Johnson & Wales, Rhode Island College, Husson and Westfield State University.

Gracie improved her score of 76 by one shot on Sunday, finishing with a 151 for the weekend and earning a tie for third place with Cordelia Chan from Williams. Williams’ golfers, Phoebe Mattana (147) and Elizabeth Gudas (148) took first and second place, respectively. As for Amherst’s other golfers, captain Zoe Wong ’18 tied for seventh, shooting 154 (79, 75), her best two-day score in her collegiate career thus far. Morgan Yurosek ’20 tied for ninth (79, 76), Jessica Jeong ’20 tied for 24th (80, 81) and Katie Rosenberg ’19 tied for 41st (86, 83).

The team also had a quartet of individual golfers performing this weekend. Emily Young ’20 led the purple and white with a score of 158 (82, 76), Kate Weiss ’19 shot 159 (78, 81), Maggie Schoeller ’19 scored 163 (83, 80) and Jahanavi Gaur ’20 posted 165 on the weekend (84, 81).

Though the team was not able to beat out Williams this weekend, they did improve both their place and score from last year. In 2015, the purple and white placed fourth with a score of 651 and were beaten by New York University and Middlebury, two teams they beat this time around.

Next weekend, Amherst will compete in the Williams Fall Invitational, one last tournament before the NESCAC Championship the following weekend. Tee time for Saturday, Oct. 1 is set for noon and day two actions begins at 9:00 a.m.