The Stanford women’s golf team finished ninth at the Stanford Intercollegiate this weekend to wrap up a tumultuous fall season. Though they will continue to practice, the Cardinal will not compete again until the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in February.

“To look at it objectively, this definitely wasn’t our best performance,” said junior Ki-Shui Liao of the team’s fall finale.

No. 4 Arizona State won the tournament by edging No. 1 Duke — who led through the first and second rounds — on the final day. No. 2 UCLA placed third.

Despite the poor finish, the Cardinal golfers lowered their team score after each round of the tournament, rising four spots from their 13th place standing after the first day.

“We didn’t have a good first day and it set us pretty far back,” Liao said. “We did improve every day and we fought hard to move up.”

The Cardinal was led, once again, by junior Mari Chun, who shot a season-low 68 on Friday and finished at four-over-par for the tournament, good for eighth place in the individual rankings.

“Mari played awesome this week and we really depended on her,” said Liao.

Sophomore Catherina Wang and freshman Rebecca Durham each shot 22-over, while sophomore Angela King and Liao shot 24-over and 26-over, respectively. Playing individually, freshman Piper Miller finished at 32-over-par, and senior Saana Rapakko ended at 38-over.

“I think we all feel that we could have definitely played better,” said Liao. “I felt like I had a lot of chances to make birdies and shoot a good score, but I was never really able to get it done.”

But No. 21 Stanford did finish ahead of higher-ranked opponents such as No. 12 Vanderbilt, who won the tournament last year, and No. 16 New Mexico. The Cardinal, though, were not paying much attention to their competition.

“We’ve played against these teams before,” said Liao. “I think we’re mainly focused on our own games and beating the golf course.”

Despite better knowledge of its home course than any other team, the Cardinal was still unable to conquer it. Liao attributed this to faster greens and thicker roughs than usual.

“The course was definitely playing harder than the past two years I’ve been here,” she said.

As a result, the Cardinal had a hard time with their putting, a problem which has plagued them throughout the fall season.

The short game is one of the many things the team will work on during the winter. Additionally, they will try to improve their swing mechanics. Due to a hectic fall schedule of four tournaments in five weeks, the Cardinal rarely got an opportunity to work on that aspect of their game.

“The great thing about golf is that you’re never truly satisfied with how you played, so there’s always room for improvement,” said Liao.

The team will also hit the gym “to get as physically in shape as possible by February,” said Liao.

Stanford will also continue to nurse injuries that affected several players during the fall season.

Though the fall season has been disappointing — Stanford will likely fall out of the top 25 in the Golf World/Nike poll after their performance this weekend — the Cardinal is, by its own admission — a second-half team.

“We are strong in the spring and postseason,” Chun said in an earlier interview.

But they will have to improve if they are to equal or surpass last year’s fifth-place finish in the NCAA Tournament.

“We can perform just as well, or better, than last year,” Chun said.

This remains to be seen, though; come February, the Cardinal will have to prove it on the course.