Senior golfer Carrie Riordan finished her season with a bang, becoming the first women’s golfer in the Ohio Valley Conference era to win an individual conference championship in Eastern history.

Riodan shot a 14-over-par 230, with a 77 the final day of the three-round tournament to win the title.

Riordan, like the rest of the women’s golf team, got better as the spring season went on.

The Panthers began the season March 15 with the Samford Invitational finishing 11th place out of 15 teams. Senior Michelle Anderson finished in a tie for 21st place shooting a team low of 13-over-par 157.

That would be the last time the Panthers would finish out of the top 10 in any event.

They followed the Saluki Invitational with an eighth place finish of 15 teams at the Bradley Classic, and a seventh-place finish in the Bradley Classic out of 14 teams.

The lone win of the spring season was a first place finish at the Loyola (Chicago) Invitational April 11-13. Eastern defeated six other teams, with four players finishing in the top 10 including Riordan, junior Katie Imburgia, Anderson and junior Jaymie Voorhees.

In the OVC Championship, Eastern finished in fifth place of eight teams, one shot behind Morehead State and Tennessee Tech who tied for third place.

Imburiga said though the scores do not show it, the team was playing well. She said the team improved throughout the year and nerves might have been a factor.

“When we found out about the scores, we were all kind of disappointed and thought about a stroke we could have taken off here of there,” Imburgia said. “But every person in the tournament could have said the same thing, even (Riordan), and she won. So it’s not what we would have hoped, but our scores are our scores.”

Anderson said it was tough this spring because they did not get good weather until the conference championship, but she thinks the team did a good job this spring.

“It’s disappointing we did not finish higher in the conference tournament, but I think we all played well,” Anderson said. “We look back and the four upperclassmen all did a good job in a tournament and played well throughout the year. It was unfortunate we could not all get it together except in the Loyola Tournament.”

Riordan had her first brush with the top 10 in the tournament leading up to the OVC Championship, with a third place finish at Loyola, three strokes behind the winner, Indiana-Purdue Indianapolis senior Lauren Kuss.

“My goal from the beginning of the year was to win the conference tournament,” Riordan said. “It feels great to reach what I accomplished.”

Imburgia said it will be difficult to replace Riordan and Anderson next season, but she is confident they will be alright next season with returning players and the ones coming in.

“I have high hopes for next year,” Imburgia said. “We should be pretty solid.”

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.

Eastern senior Carrie Riordan follows through on her swing at last weekend’s Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in London, Ky. (Photo courtesy of Ohio Vally Conference)

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