Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Athletics

Bulldogs finish sixth in tourney at Copper River

Rain or shine, Fresno State women̢۪s golf coach Angie Cates-Moore says that the weather played no factor in her team̢۪s struggles at the Fresno State Lexus Classic Monday and Tuesday at Copper River Country Club.

Day one of the tournament was a rain-soaked event that had the Bulldogs finish in a four way tie for seventh place. Fresno State finished Monday̢۪s portion of the invitational shooting a 35-over 611 to finish 21 strokes behind leader San Francisco.

“I think it was a little bit of nerves. It wasn’t the weather,â€Â Moore said. “It was our first tournament back since October so there was a little anxiety and them wanting to play well. They were afraid of making a bad shot and that thought got to them.â€Â

The most impressive Bulldogs in the tournament for Monday were senior Taylor Siebert and freshman Louisa Lies.

Siebert finished day one by posting a 7-under par 151 to be in the top 20 of the tournament. Lies also posted the same numbers on Monday to stay tied with her teammate.

“Taylor played great today, really steady golf out there, shot one-under par,â€Â Moore said. “You can count on her coming down the stretch.â€Â

Fresno State finished sixth overall on the final day and finished ahead of conference rivals Nevada, Hawaii, and Boise State. UC Irvine was the outright winner of the tournament with a total score of 891.

Weather no excuse for mistakes

Despite improving to a sixth place finish, Moore believes that her team can still be better as the year progresses.

“I wouldn’t say we did a lot better,â€Â Moore said. “They’re all kind of hanging around the field of par, which we could do better than that. We’re going to have a few meetings this week and talk about what we did well this week and what we can do better for the following weeks.

“We’re going on the road for two weeks straight now. We have to learn from this experience but we’re going to get better and finish the season strong.â€Â

Playing in her final home tournament, Siebert also didn̢۪t want to use the weather conditions as an excuse for not finishing higher in the tournament.

“It wasn’t the weather, I was struggling a little bit with cutting,â€Â Siebert said. “I guess I was doubtful of my plan. I worked on getting distances correct this morning and trying to get more comfortable. I did that a lot better today so that was the main difference for me.â€Â

Siebert noticed one area of improvement in the final day, putting the ball.

“As far as putting is concerned, I did better today,â€Â Siebert said. “I hit the ball pretty well yesterday but it was a little bit tough with the wind yesterday. But it was windy today too. It’s just something that we have to deal with. Everybody played in these conditions.â€Â