After two rounds of play at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, the No. 15 Stanford women’s golf team sits in sixth place and is 19 total shots behind the leader, No. 4 Southern California. The tournament, held at the Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, began on Monday and concludes today.

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Junior Ki-Shui Liao is in 34th place (+10) heading into today’s final round of competition at the Edean Ihlanfeld Invitational tournament.

The Cardinal won the tournament last year after a strong second round propelled them to first place, a spot they did not relinquish. But similar success was not found this year, as the team fell from a first-round third place standing to its current sixth position. Now, in order to defend its title, the Cardinal will have to pass not only USC in today’s final round, but Pac-10 schools No. 3 Arizona State and No. 7 Arizona, amongst others.

Coach Caroline O’Connor acknowledged that 19 strokes would be a “pretty large deficit to make up.” ASU, currently in second, is only 10 shots ahead of Stanford — O’Connor saw a second place finish as “more realistic.”

In order to move up to second, the Cardinal must improve its short game — the team missed a number of putts from under three feet. Such mistakes are unacceptable on the Sahalee course, which O’Connor described as “visually intimidating.” The links are narrow and lined with evergreens, making hits off the tee especially difficult.

“You can hit good shots, but not be rewarded,” O’Connor said.

The Cardinal actually performed better yesterday than on Monday, shooting a combined 302, as opposed to 304 in the first round. O’Connor attributed this improvement to “better course management.” However, Stanford was still out-shot in the second round by ten of the 16 teams in the tournament.

Stanford’s top golfer, junior Mari Chun, is at +3 for the tournament after shooting a 4-over 76 yesterday. Chun, who had the best personal score (-1) last year, is currently in eighth place in the individual rankings. “She has an amazing ability to score,” O’Connor said. “She’s a great shot maker.”

Chun is accompanied by sophomores Catherina Wang (+8) and Angela King (+10), junior Ki-Shui Liao (+10) and freshman Rebecca Durham (+14). King rejoined the team after an injury sidelined her for the first two tournaments of the year.

Indeed, this has not been the most auspicious start to the year for the Cardinal.

After finishing fifth at the NCAA Championships last April, the Cardinal was ranked No. 9 in the preseason Golf World/Nike Preseason Coaches poll. However, after finishing 12th at the Mason Rudolph Championship and 17th at the Margaret Branch NCAA Preview, Stanford fell six spots in the poll.

However, the team is in a slight rebuilding mode: Lauren Todd ‘07 and Jennifer Tangtiphaiboontana ‘07 graduated. They were replaced by freshmen Durham and Piper Miller, who are in the midst of adjusting to collegiate life. Additionally, the first two tournaments featured tougher fields than that of the Ihlanfeldt Invitational. Even so, O’Connor said, “we haven’t performed to expectations this year.”

Yet, the team is ultimately improving.

“We’ve made quite a bit of progress [since] the last tournament,” O’Connor said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be top five every week, like last year.”

Such a turnaround could begin with a stellar final round today.