Currently ranked No. 44 in the nation, the women’s golf team started off their regular season with a No. 9 finish at the Peg Barnard Stanford Invitational last weekend.

Senior Tonje Daffinrud tied for eighth, scoring a 73 and a 72 for the two-day tournament. This was her third top 10 finish in a row.

Junior Rachael Watton and sophomores Elise Smidinger and Isabel Southard all shot 74s last weekend, helping the Pioneers make a top 10 finish.

“We did pretty well the first day,” head coach Lindsay Kuhle said. “We were in fourth after the first day and then fell to ninth the second day. We didn’t play our best golf the second day, but we still finished in the top ten.”

With improving weather conditions in Denver, the Pioneers have been able to gain more outdoor playtime before traveling to tournaments. Unfortunately, Denver will not be playing in any home matches this season.

Three regular season tournaments remain, with the Tulane All-Star Sugar Bowl up first starting on Feb. 23.

Denver’s head coach, Kuhle, was a golfer at Tulane before starting her coaching career with the Pioneers. The fourth annual tournament is bringing in 17 teams, 14 of which are ranked in the top 50 in the nation.

“Tulane will be great competition. The course isn’t too difficult, but we will need to be playing well to score well,” Kuhle said.

Denver enters the Summit League as the season favorite, according to a recent coaches poll. A league championship would be the Pioneers’ third consecutive title of the sort. The Summit League Conference Championships are scheduled for April 21 at the Sky Creek Ranch Golf Club in Texas.

If the Pioneers win the Summit League conference title, they will advance to Regionals, which will take place during the first week of May.

“We just want to improve and get better each tournament. We focus a lot on process goals that lead to the outcome. We focus on what we can control out on the golf course,” Kuhle said.