The Stanford women’s golf team entered the final round of the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational with little chance of winning the tournament for the second straight year — after Tuesday’s second round, the No. 15 Cardinal sat 19 shots behind the leader, No. 4 Southern California. A top-five finish was more realistic, but after a poor showing on the last five holes of the course, Stanford fell to its final standing in seventh.

The Cardinal, which started yesterday in sixth position, began the day slow, with the exception of sophomore Catherina Wang, who shot +1 on the front nine. The team was much more solid at the beginning of the back nine, shooting +1 total over holes 11-13.

Junior Mari Chun, who finished the tournament at +5, birdied two holes over that span, while junior Ki-Shui Liao (+14) and freshman Rebecca Durham (+19) birdied one hole each.

If the team had maintained that pace over the last five holes, they would have had a shot at fourth place — Stanford finished 28 shots behind USC, the tournament’s champion, but only ten strokes behind Oregon, who placed in third. However, the Cardinal shot +6 over that span, which not only ended its bid for a top-five finish, but also allowed No. 11 Pepperdine to move into sixth place.

“Obviously, we would have liked to finish better,” said coach Caroline O’Connor.

“We played pretty well, but we didn’t finish well,” said Liao.

The team — especially Liao — was able to strike the ball well in all rounds, but poor putting plagued the Cardinal throughout the tournament, although it did improve from day to day.

O’Connor specifically highlighted the improvement in Durham and sophomore Angela King’s (+18) short game yesterday. Still, O’Connor said that the team was “not as confident on the greens as we should have been.”

Liao attributed this to overcast weather conditions at the Sahalee Country Club course, which caused a softer green, which in turn led to slower ball movement.

“The balls didn’t roll well,” she said. “The soft greens are in stark contrast to those at the Stanford golf course, which are harder and thus allow the ball to roll well.”

The Cardinal will be back in their comfort zone next week, when they host the Stanford Intercollegiate tournament.

“Next week should be a much better week,” said O’Connor, whose team finished fourth in the competition last year.

Stanford will be against a much tougher field than that of the Ihlanfeldt Invitational — its competition features nine top-25 teams, including No. 1 Duke, No. 2 UCLA and last year’s champion, No. 11 Vanderbilt.

Liao said that in preparation, the Cardinal will focus intently on improving their short game and ball-striking skills. But the Cardinal feels as if its improvement over the first three tournaments will finally show in the Stanford Invitational.

O’Connor’s confidence in her team appears to never waver.

“We certainly feel like we could win,” she said.