Women's golf falls in Puerto Rico classic

The SMU women’s golf team struggled in its opening event finishing tied for ninth with a three-day total of 909 in the Lady’s Puerto Rico Classic.

Despite struggling most of the way in the tournament, SMU received a nice performance from senior Felicia Espericueta as she finished 11th. Espericueta finished off the tournament with a 5-over total and 1-over par 73 on the final day.

After having a very rough second, senior Melanie White rebounded nicely with a 3-over 75 on the final day.

SMU also got a strong performance from junior Maria Elena Villamil, who finished the tournament with a total of 13-over and tied for 34th place.

One of the problems the Mustangs ran into was multiple players having bad performances on the same day. They could not spread the rounds out over a three-day span. SMU was bitten by multiple players being off and put into a deep hole early on. Most players for the Mustangs were hovering around the high 70s and one in the 80s. If the Mustangs hope to secure that preseason conference crown, they will need to start lowering at least a few of those scores and limit the team to one bad round a day so they can drop that score and not put themselves in a hole.

Another problem SMU ran into was two of their big guns not bringing their A-game in Puerto Rico. Seniors Melanie White and Alexandra Rossi struggled throughout most of the tournament and could not seem to get anything going. The ladies were unable to break the 300 mark on the weekend, leaving them with a lot of work to get ready for the rest of the year.

Despite struggling at times throughout the tournament, SMU also played in an extremely tough field. Nebraska was the only team in the field not to be ranked by GolfWeek’s. Despite the field, it became apparent very early on that Alabama was the class of the tournament. Alabama rolled over the field, winning by 13 shots over Arkansas. Alabama came into the week ranked 6th in the nation.

However, the Lady Mustangs will not panic about this meet. It was the first meet of the year for them and serves as a baseline to head upwards. The team has ample time to rebound from this and will need to put this in the rearview mirror.

The Lady Mustangs look to rebound when the team squares off once again against good competition in the Central District in Parish, Fla., Monday Feb. 18. That meet is only two days, but would go a long way towards putting the Lady’s Puerto Rico Classic behind the Mustangs.