The Chico State women’s golf team finished its fall season on a high note by receiving the team’s highest mark at a tournament this season — third place at the Sonoma State Invitational.

To some, that may not seem impressive. But to others, like junior Bianca Armanini, it’s an improvement over the previous season because the team’s stroke average dropped dramatically.

“The team definitely put out much better scores this semester compared to last season,” Armanini said. “(We) lowered our stroke average by a lot and now that we have seen what other teams are bringing, we know what we need to work on in order to win a few tournaments next semester.”

First-year head coach Nick Green now has a semester under his belt and plans to improve and try to get a win in the spring.

The team only competed in four tournaments this season and will have six next. Out of all the tournaments they competed in, the team received third, two sixth places, and a 10th place finish. The team traveled all over the west coast to compete in cities:

• San Diego, for the Point Loma Nazarene Fall Preview
• Goodyear, Arizona for the Western New Mexico Fall Intercollegiate
• Sunriver, Oregon for the Golfweek D-II Fall Invitational
• Rohnert Park, for the Sonoma State NCAA West Regional Preview

One highlight of the season came when junior Dani O’Keefe not only shot a career best and placed third overall individually at the GolfWeek Invitational, but also broke the school record with lowest ever three-round score.

At the Sonoma State invite, top Wildcat golfers included O’Keefe, who placed third once again this season and Armanini and Abbey McGrew, who tied for 13th place. Armanini shot a career best for herself in Sonoma.

“The most memorable thing this semester was shooting my career best 73 in the first round (in Sonoma),” Armanini said.

Although the team did not get a single win this season, golfers like McGrew think on the positive side.

“I feel like the team did do better than last year,” McGrew said. “Unfortunately, we did not have any wins this season, but I feel like we are playing better and more consistent golf.”

According to ncaa.com, the Wildcats are ranked fifth in the West, behind St. Edward’s, Tarleton State, California Baptist and Dallas Baptist. Those rankings were last taken on April 24, so the women hope to improve themselves after the hiatus.

“The team looks forward to more opportunities to improve our ranking in the spring,” McGrew said.

“We have a pretty full schedule next semester so that’s very exciting to compete in all of those tournaments,” Armani added

The team will now enjoy a three-month hiatus, but will resume with its first match in Austin, Texas at the St. Edwards Invitational on Feb. 23-24.

Samuel Wolfson can be reached at sports [email protected] or @theorion_sports on Twitter.