After finishing in fourth place at the Wolverine Invitational to start the season on Sept, 12, the Michigan women’s golf team was hoping for a better effort in the Mary Fossum Invitational in East Lansing this past weekend. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, the team may have taken a step backward.

Michigan took sixth place out of 11 teams with only one player, freshman Alyssa Shimel, finishing in the top 25 individually. Collectively, the Wolverines shot a 937, which was 47 strokes behind the winning team, Notre Dame, and 13 strokes more than they took in the last tournament. Kent State, Michigan State, Iowa State and Long Beach State all finished ahead of the Wolverines. Michigan coach Cheryl Stacy was not pleased with her team’s performance.

“I was pretty disappointed with how we played,” Stacy said. “Our scores were pretty high and a couple upperclassmen I thought would play better didn’t. Normally, a couple of players are very good off the tee and they weren’t hitting the ball very straight. Our short games weren’t very good and just some mental mistakes here and there. Nothing to be pinpointed as the specific thing just a combination of a lot of little things.”

Stacy’s frustration with her upperclassmen can be placed on the shoulders of junior Meagan Bauer and senior Min Yean Tan. Bauer finished tied for 42nd, with an overall score of 239. Tan only shot four strokes lower, finishing her weekend tied for 28th. These scores were quite shocking to Stacy because Tan almost won the Wolverine Invitational two weeks ago and Bauer finished much higher in that event as well.

Michigan's overall poor performance might come as a surprise, because the Wolverines had almost twice as long to practice before the event. Stacy attributed the team’s struggles to nerves.

“You know, it's an individual game,” Stacy said. "It's not one thing they all have to work on. That’s what makes it hard. One person may need to work on a short game, and another might have to work on hitting more fairways."

With all the poor rounds, it's difficult to find a silver lining, though Stacy believes that the attitude of Shimel is a positive take-away. Shimel was disappointed with her overall score of 233, even though she posted the top individual score for the Wolverines. But Stacy admired her freshman’s outlook.

“I was glad that she was disappointed,” Stacy said. “She has high standards and high expectations. That’s (the) type of player we want on this team and we need five of them to have that type of expectations. I have high hopes for her.”

Michigan will look to respond next weekend in South Bend for the Notre Dame Invitational.

“Were going to have to work harder,” Stacy said. “The girls are going to have to come in extra on their own time and put in a little bit more effort.”