The women's golf team headed to Longhorn country to exorcise some demons from last year, but in the end it came up a little short.
The Blue Devils finished in the middle of the pack at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Classic, placing ninth out of 16 teams over the three day tournament held in Austin, Texas. The Duke team shot a combined score of 958 to end the March 10-12 event 41 strokes off the pace set by the Tulsa women's team.
Despite losing out to a red-hot Tulsa team, the Blue Devils did manage to finish only one stroke behind Tennessee and four strokes behind the host Texas Longhorns.
Duke displayed some conference toughness, though, by splitting with two Atlantic Coast Conference rivals. The Blue Devils finished nine strokes ahead of North Carolina, but failed to keep pace with Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons shot a 949, which earned them sole possession of fifth-place.
"It's hard for us to be really excited about the tournament, but some things did happen which were positive," head coach Dan Brooks said. "My hope for the tournament was that we would show some mental toughness. It's a difficult golf course and there's always going to be wind out there, but I really thought they played pretty tough. They showed a lot of perseverance."
The Blue Devils, who finished fourth in last year's NCAA tournament, were led by the strong play of freshman Alicia Allison, a native of Santa Ana, Calif. Allison started the tournament with an impressive opening round of 73. She finished up with a three-day total of 234, which earned her 10th place in the individual competition.
"We have a lot of talent on this team so it's not a surprise that Allison did so well," Brooks said. "She is very talented and I am excited for her."
Junior Kathi Poppmeier, an all-ACC selection from last year, also played well, finishing the tournament in 14th place. But the three other members of the team, junior Jamie Koizumi, senior Pam Soliman, and sophomore Liz Lepanto, finished out of the top tier, placing 46th, 55th and 58th, respectively.
"My expectations are that we should have a lot of players performing at [Allison's] level," Brooks said. "But there are certain criteria that I go by to judge the team and scoring is not the only thing."
And history may be one of those criterion.
Last year's Duke squad, which finished in the top five of nearly every tournament, also had troubles at the Longhorn Classic. The 1993-94 Blue Devils finished the Texas tournament with their worst showing of the year with an eighth-place finish.
Despite their troubles, the 1993-94 team finished the year in a strong fashion, placing no worse than fourth the rest of the season.
The 1994-95 version of the women's golf team may take a lesson from last year's team.
So, despite finishing in the middle of the pack, the Blue Devils have a lot to build on as the year goes on.
"We didn't have too many three-putts throughout the tournament," Brooks said. "I think that shows that, despite some of the scores, that they are really trying to get the job done."
It's still early in the golf season and a lot can change between now and the ACC and NCAA tournaments in the late spring.
"We certainly didn't leave the tournament defeated," Brooks said. "We feel we can move on and be a lot better."
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