Frosh Leads Victory Charge

Coming from behind to win a tournament is nothing new for the Harvard women’s golf team. Doing so in Princeton, however, is a novelty. The Crimson’s victory at the Princeton Invitational over the weekend marked the first time that Harvard has beaten the Tigers on their home course.

The Crimson (302-311-613) put together two solid rounds in the sun in New Jersey playing against 15 other schools, including Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth. The team was led, once again, by freshman Christine Cho (73-77-150). Cho, who tied for first in the Dartmouth Invitational last weekend, finished the tournament in third place.

Harvard came into the weekend as the defending Ivy League champions, but also well aware of its history in the competition.

“We were a little daunted by the fact that last year we came into the tournament thinking we had a chance to win and ended up taking third,” junior Sarah Harvey (78-77-155) said.

“Springdale hasn’t treated us particularly well in the past few years,” Harvard coach Kevin Rhoads said of Princeton’s course. “But while we weren’t leading after the first round, we were still very pleased. We left ourselves in a very good position.”

Harvard shot an impressive 302 in round one, but found itself trailing Princeton by four strokes after the first day.

This placed the Crimson in a familiar position. Last weekend, Harvard was six strokes behind the Big Green after round one of the Dartmouth Invitational and came back to win.

The two tournaments, however, were played under very different circumstances. The Crimson went into last weekend as huge favorites in Hanover, N.H. Going to Princeton, on the other hand, was the first real test of the year.

Despite the differences, the team still looked to its past experience as guidance.

“After what happened last weekend, being four shots down to Princeton wasn’t really too scary,” Harvey said.

“We knew we had come from behind in the past,” captain Ali Bode (81-79-160) said. “We try not to focus on score, and that’s really when things fall into place and we start making up the strokes.”

Scores were higher yesterday, and a second round 311 allowed Harvard to overtake the Tigers and win the invitational by two strokes.

“We actually had a solid round yesterday, but we can have no influence on what other teams do,” junior Clare Sheldon (77-78-155) said. “So every round we just go and try to do our best. And it was enough Sunday.”

Sheldon and Harvey tied for 12th with two very sound rounds each.

While the weather was beautiful, the course was enough to provide a tough test with its thick and long rough. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that the visiting teams were unable to practice on the greens before the tournament began, giving Princeton a huge home-course advantage.

One player who had no trouble putting was sophomore Mia Kabasakalis (74-79-153), whose stellar first round paved the way for her finish in seventh place overall.

Her teammate Cho also had a great first round, shooting 73. Yesterday, Cho was paired with last year’s Ivy-League individual champion, Princeton’s Susannah Aboff. The two finished tied for third in the tournament.

After her performance, Rhoads heaped praise upon his newest star.

“The level of her game is very high, and she does well in so many different areas,” Rhoads said. “No matter who she is playing with or against, she plays her own game. Her game is definitely more mature than her freshman status.”

Still, the most important thing for the Crimson was proving that last year’s league championship was not a fluke result.

Defeating its toughest Ivy opponent on its home course for the first time ever certainly helps.

“Beating them showed we have what it takes, and that we can beat them on any course,” Kabasakalis said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.