The Kent State women’s golf team returned from Columbus yesterday after a strong performance at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational.

Seeing Mid-American Conference competition for the first time, the team shot 69-over-par, finishing third out of the 14 teams from the MAC and Big 10.

The Flashes had the best finish of the five MAC schools: Eastern Michigan, Ohio, Toledo and Western Michigan.

“This was a pretty good field,” said coach Mike Morrow. “There were a ton of good golfers this weekend, and third is very strong.”

Purdue won the tournament, shooting 27-over, and Michigan State finished second, 47-over-par. Host Ohio State, 71-over, finished behind the Flashes in fourth.

“It was good to beat Ohio State on their home course,” Morrow said. “But Purdue pretty much outclassed the whole field.”

Individually, Purdue’s Maria Hernandez, 1-under-par, and Christel Boeljon, 2-over, took the first at second spots.

Kent State junior Tara Delaney finished third with an 8-over-par. Sophomore Kirby Dreher’s 15-over was good for a ninth place tie, and junior Kira Meixner tied for 16th with a 19-over.

“I thought I played pretty well,” Dreher said. “The greens were tough; I drove the ball well and hit a lot of fairways.”

Morrow said he was happy to have three players at the top of the leaderboard at a difficult course.

“This course was extremely hard,” Morrow said. “To have three players in the top 20 is quite an accomplishment.”

But Morrow said the team was not very happy with the tournament.

“Not one player was completely happy with her performance,” Morrow said. “We have a little work to do to get where we want to be.”

This weekend, the team will attempt to win its ninth-consecutive MAC Championship at the Longaberger Golf Club in Nashport.

Contact golf reporter Jeff Russ at [email protected].