Hey there Illini Nation!

The team recently traveled all the way to lovely Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to play in the Coeur d'Alene Resort Collegiate Invitational hosted by Gonzaga University. We had a great time getting to meet lovely people, playing this amazing golf course, and coming back home with a second place finish, more records broken, and more energy and positivity than ever.

Arriving at the Coeur d'Alene Resort was amazing. The view out of our hotel rooms was just as beautiful at night as it was during the day. The real treat and new experience for us as a team though, was being surrounded by an enormous lake. This being the case, we got to experience some unique things here! First off, the morning of our practice round, we walked on the docks right outside our hotel rooms and boarded a speed boat that took us all the way from the resort, across the lake, and to the golf course. Besides the fact that our hair got a little tangled up by the wind on the way there, the ride was so fun and upon arrival we were greeted by the infamous floating green of the 14th hole (which we also had to take a boat to every day). After a very informative and productive practice round, we were treated to dinner on a boat cruise as we got to watch the sunset.

Up and early the next morning we headed to the course and had a nice change of atmosphere as before we left campus it was a good 90+ degrees, while out on the lake it was down in the 40's in the morning. Nevertheless, our positive energy kept us warm and ready to start the long day ahead of us strong. We finished up our first round with a team total of 280 (4-under) and followed it up with a team total of 279 (5-under)! Coming back to the hotel after a long day on the course we had our team meeting over a couple delicious brick oven pizzas and made sure that everyone left with that same, positive, all-in mindset that we carried with us coming from our last tournament in Tennessee.

Coming onto the course for our last round we were ready to show everyone what being a Fighting Illini was all about. We came to play our games, to stay in the moment, and to have some fun. You could really sense the amount of positive energy we were throwing at each other to push one another and keep us going throughout the round. In the end, we fought hard and we stuck to our commitments. We shot 2-under on the day as a team finishing 11-under total and finished in 2nd place out of a field of 18 other elite college teams. 

In between all of the hectic packing and rushing to the airport to make our flight post-round, we found some time to sit down and talk about our performance. Even though we didn't come out in first, our experience and our result was still a win for our team. Finishing this tournament, it marks 6 straight rounds under par for us this season and it is definitely a confidence booster for us. 

We are all so ready to keep up the energy and get back to work because as Coach Slone always says, "The separation is in the preparation!" Our next event is the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky. Hope to see some orange and blue out there to watch the show and help keep the positive energy up with us!

Fairways and Greens,

Ali Morallos