LEWISBURG, Pa. – Led by its senior captain and a freshman in her collegiate debut, the Navy women's golf team got a pair of top-5 individual performances to take third place in the team standings this weekend at the Bucknell Invitational in Lewisburg, Pa.
 
Competing in their first tournament under interim head coach Kylee Sullivan at the Par-70, 5901-yard Bucknell Golf Club, the Midshipmen saw senior captain Mara Hirtle finish in second place while freshman Keira Howard ended her first collegiate event tied for third place on the leaderboard. As a squad, the Mids shot a 57-over par 897 score in the 54-hole event to finish behind first-place Boston University (48-over par 888) and the host Bison (56-over par 896), posting rounds of 301 and 294 on Saturday before shooting a 302 in Sunday's final round.
 
Hirtle opened her senior campaign with a 10-over par 220 performance (73-74-73), finishing five strokes behind the tournament winner in Boston's Christy Chen (5-over par 215). The runner-up performance marks a program-record eighth top-5 finish for Hirtle in her Navy career, surpassing Christine McDonnell's seven top-5 finishes from 2018-21.
 
Firing rounds of 72-75-74 to earn a weekend score of 11-over par 221, Howard became the first Navy freshman to place in the top-5 at their college debut since Angelina Chan tied for fifth place at the 2019 Bucknell Invitational.
 
Finishing in a tie for 10th, senior Stephanie Lee used rounds of 76-71-80 to end the tournament at 17-over par 227, as her 1-over par 71 round to end Saturday was the lowest round by a Navy golfer on the weekend. Following her, junior Bridget Hoang tied for 17th place at 19-over par 229, recovering from a rough start with rounds of 80-74-75. Rounding out the Mids' lineup was freshman Emma Tang, who tied for 32nd with a score of 29-over par 239 (80-78-81) in her collegiate debut.
 
Competing individually, sophomores Sue Lee and Hallie Brisco tied for 25th and 36th, respectively, as Lee shot a 24-over par 234 (78-73-83) while Brisco posted a 31-over par 241 (81-84-76).

"The Bucknell Invitational was a great way to kick off the fall season," said Sullivan. "The team played hard and had a solid finish. This was also a good chance for us to preview this spring's Patriot League Championship venue along with some of the league's other teams. We are feeling confident for the upcoming events on our slate, starting with Penn State's tournament next weekend."
 
Navy continues its fall slate on Sept. 16-17 at the Nittany Lion Invitational in University Park, Pa.