Sacramento State women’s golf got back into the swing of things placing sixth-overall in its first tournament appearance this season at the Matador Invitational in Simi Valley, Calif.

Senior Lisa Persson recorded the highest individual finish for the Hornets and shot the lowest final round at a 2-over-par 74. Persson finished 14th overall recording rounds of 77-80-74-231.

Despite placing in the top 20 in every tournament this season, Persson said she has struggled even though her numbers appear to be consistent.

“It [was] a lot of up-and-down shooting,” Persson said. “I know I can shoot 74 [all] three rounds, but I’m not really on top of my game right now.” 

In the first round Persson shot two birdies, nine pars and seven bogeys. She stayed even through six holes following a bogey and a birdie on the par-3 seventh hole. 

“I am pretty stable around the scores I have been shooting this season,” Persson said. “I’m staying in the same range, but I know I can perform a lot better.” 

Tournament host Cal State Northridge built a favorable lead from start to finish with a total of 294-306-297-887 overall to secure its first win this season.

The Hornets were in strong competition with the rest of the field at 303-319-315-937 and finished 14 strokes back of second-overall BYU (923).

Cal Poly (928) was third followed by Hawaii (933), UC Riverside (934), Sacramento State (937), Northern Colorado (976) and CSU Bakersfield (1008).

“I felt like we could have done better,” said freshman Chloe Bartek. “We felt pretty good going into the tournament and we were hoping to place higher than that, but the competition was pretty good.”

Bartek tied for 25th overall recording rounds of 75-85-77-237. The freshman said it was hard getting back into playing 36 holes because of the mental and physical toll it took on her body.  

“I hit the ball well I just had a few mental errors,” Bartek said. 

In an unusual move, officials changed the course after the field concluded its practice round by moving tees up creating shorter distances. After complaints of the Matador’s having an unfair advantage in the first round the officials moved a couple of tees back.  

This was seen as a disadvantage to all competing teams except Northridge who regularly practices on that course from multiple distances. 

“In the second round when they moved the tees back it was still short,” said junior Sagee Palavivatana. “For me, I thought the course was playing pretty nicely and it was one of those courses where precision mattered.”

The course described by the Hornets was shorter, narrower and had a thick rough compared to the courses they have competed on thus far.

Palavivatana said there was little room for error on this unforgiving course because of the lack of playing room to work with. 

The junior opened it up for the Sac State  with a first round of one-over-par 73. She had the second lowest individual finish for the Hornets at 20th overall recording a 73-79-81-233.

Palavivatana played her first nine holes (Nos. 10-18) at 6-over with four bogeys and a double bogey. On the front side of the course she had a birdie on the par-3 seventh, four pars and four bogeys.

Although the team recorded their second lowest team finish this season, the Hornets are not satisfied and hope to capture another win. 

“We had pretty high expectations and I think we just were rusty coming into our first tournament and not into our normal routines yet,” Persson said. “One of our top girls Tiffany [Nichols] just got new clubs and a swing change, as you can see in her scores they were [unusually] high too.”  

Tiffany Nichols finished 42nd with rounds of 81-81-88-250. Nichols will have three weeks until their next tournament to gain familiarity with her new clubs in hopes of getting back to her old form.

Rockelle Sande competed as an individual and tied for 34th at 88-79-77-244. Natalie Bodnar completed her first tournament this season. Bodnar finished in 29th place at 78-79-83-240.

The women said in order to be successful in their next tournament, they need to wipe the slate clean by thinking positive and coming in with a high mentality to earn a better finish.

Next up, the Hornets do not tee off in tournament play until the Red Rocks Invitational in Sedona, Ariz., Mar. 1-2.