By: Brendan Burris ~Staff Writer~

The Xavier women’s golf team just completed their Big East Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla., finishing the tournament in third place out of six competing teams.

The tournament, which took place over three rounds from April 16 to 18, was certainly a closely contested tournament. The team completed day one and day two play in a tie for first place, with a team score of +22 and +34, respectively. Some team standouts from the first two days included freshman Hanna Lee, whose first day 76 led to a top-five individual finish. Also playing strong for the Musketeers were sophomore Gracie Howe and junior Shane Crutchfield, whose combined weekend score of 231 led to the two tying for ninth in the individual standings.

Out of 30 competing Big East athletes, no Xavier player finished lower than 22nd place. The final day saw a three-way race for the tournament crown between Xavier, the Seton Hall Pirates and the Georgetown Hoyas.

By the end of a strong day of competition, the Pirates were able to take the tournament with a total score of 914 (+50), just one shot ahead of Georgetown at 915 (+51). Individual honors for the tournament went to the Hoyas’ Jacquelyn Eleey, whose final-day 74 and weekend total of 223 (+7) gave her the crown by one shot over Seton Hall’s Erin McClure. Xavier will only graduate one senior from the team this year. It was a strong season for the team, who played all over the country throughout the season, putting up solid results.

Looking forward, the Musketeers are set to make another charge at the Big East Championship next season against strong perennial conference teams like Seton Hall, Georgetown and Creighton. However, the team will have to compete next season without head coach Tom Eifers, who announced his retirement from coaching after nine seasons earlier this season.