M. Golf bitten at Hoya Invite in final match of 2001 fall season

Once again, the Hoya Invitational title was claimed by a Pennsylvania school. Unfortunately for the Penn men's golf team, that school was Penn State.

Yesterday, with a team score of 582, the Nittany Lions claimed the crown in Leesburg, Va., for the second straight year.

Penn, meanwhile, finished a distant 10th, shooting 624.

"We played really poorly on the back nine," Penn senior Mike Russell said. "That's about all it came down to."

One of the key problems during the tournament was the inclement weather. Gusting winds and near-freezing temperatures on Sunday forced Penn to postpone the finish of its first round until early yesterday morning.

The adverse conditions negated what would normally be considered a drastic improvement. Penn's 306 yesterday -- as compared to a 318 on Sunday -- was in great deal attributable to the weather.

"Most of the teams scored a lot better the second day," Russell said. "The weather was awful [Sunday], and [yesterday] it was perfect."

Penn coach Francis Vaughn, however, regarded the delays as beneficial.

"Towards the end of [Sunday] we were really struggling," Vaughn said. "It helped to finish [yesterday] morning.

"We played better the second round; we played more consistently."

Russell, who time and time again has led Penn this season, was once again the Quakers' top individual scorer. He shot twin 77s to finish with a total of 154 and a rank of 29.

Following Russell for the Red and Blue were senior Trey Best and junior Chad Perman, both of whom finished in 39th place with scores of 157. After them were junior Peyton Wallace and sophomore Adam Squires, who both shot 159 and placed 46th.

"I was a little disappointed in my play the first round," Squires said about his first tournament of the fall season. "I put it together toward the end of [yesterday].

"[The improvement] wasn't anything major, I just made a couple putts when I needed to."

The Hoya Invitational marked the conclusion of the Quakers' fall season. Penn's play will not resume until March 15, when it travels to the St. John's Invitational.

The Quakers know what they need to work on during the offseason.

"I'd like to improve our overall consistency throughout the course of 18 holes," Vaughn said. "We play a lot of good stretches, but we need to be able to put it all together for the full 18."

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