The Sacramento State women’s rowing team started its fall season Saturday with a strong showing at the Head of the American at Lake Natoma.

Competing for the first time this season, the Hornets’ ‘A’ boat tied for third place in the women’s Open Eight event with Southern California’s ‘B’ boat, finishing the five kilometer race in 17:35, and losing only to USC ‘A’ and California ‘A’. Cal ‘A’ won the event with a time of 16:58.

According to team captain Laura Harder, who stroked the ‘A’ boat, the race was a success.

“It felt really good. We really pulled it together,” Harder said. “We wanted to beat Stanford. We beat them last year and we wanted to see how we compared to them this year.”

Stanford ‘A’ finished sixth, with a time of 17:44.

Two of the keys to the Hornets success were confidence and team chemistry.

“We were very confident this morning. We came in knowing exactly what we wanted to do,” Harder said. “Before races, a lot of teams are very serious and we really like to laugh and joke around.

“It’s who we are.”

The women’s novice eight placed third in the women’s Collegiate Novice Eight, with a time of 19:10, again losing only to USC and event winner Cal, who finished in 17:56.

The women’s lightweight four won the Lightweight Four event in a time of 21:41.

According to stroke Coralie Wilhite, the race was a good one for the crew.

“We were really together. The boat was set the whole way through and our stroke rating was nice and relaxed,” Wilhite said.

Overall, the day was a big success for the program, according to head coach Mike Connors.

“The hardest part is getting the team not to stress about race day,” Connors said. “We felt like we got what we wanted out of today. We’re in the right range now.”