It looks like winning could become a habit for the Gators.
After their first top-three finish in their last tournament on March 25, the No. 30 UF women's golf team put itself in position to repeat the feat.
Monday, the team finished the first two rounds of the Lady Gator Invitational in third place with a team score of 46 over par, just three shots behind first-place Duke and Alabama.
But the Gators aren't satisfied.
"It does feel good, but we all had higher expectations," freshman Andrea Watts said. "We wanted to be leading this tournament going in to the last day."
Although no UF golfer had a great round, three Gators finished in the top 12 individually.
Watts had the lowest score of the day for the team at 8 over par. She was consistent and shot 4 over par in each of the rounds Monday.
The second golfer of the three was Jessica Yadloczky. She finished the day with a score of 10 over par. Although her play was not as good as usual, it was still good enough for a share of the ninth-best individual score.
The final piece of the trio was freshman Evan Jensen, who shot 11 over par Monday. Despite a tough first-round score of 9 over par, she bounced back with a score of 2 over par in the second round.
It is no coincidence that the success of Watts, Yadloczky and Jensen were reflected in the team's score.
"We all put enough into contributing to the team, and the more we can help, the better we're off," Watts said.
With one more round to play Tuesday, the Gators will start the day just three shots behind first place.
Although this team has never been so close to victory before, it knows that only a tournament win would be success.
"We've never been this close to a win before," Watts said. "We can all taste it, and we want it so bad."
MEN'S STRUGGLES CONTINUE: Just when they thought it couldn't get worse, it did.
The No. 5 UF men's golf team fell to 14th place after a team score of 26 over par in the second round of the U.S. Collegiate Championship in Atlanta.
With a combined score of 34 over par over the first two rounds, the Gators are 31 strokes behind first-place Stanford.
None of the UF golfers has a tournament score under par.
The closest is senior Billy Horschel's score of 3 over par. While he was 2 under par after the first round, he struggled on Monday with a score of 5 over par.
