NC State women’s golf could not capitalize on its home course advantage in the City of Oaks Collegiate at NC State’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course, placing third with an aggregate of 47-over par in a field where it was the highest-ranked team.

No. 85 East Carolina took the top spot with a final score of 22-over par, while No. 48 Campbell placed second with 39-over par.

Freshman Marie Eline Madsen placed fifth in a field of 95, finishing at 4-over par, two strokes back from the leader, securing her sixth top-10 placement of the season. Madsen has been rock solid for the Pack, but the ambitious freshman still has her eye on the prize — a collegiate victory.

“I’m proud of what I have accomplished,” Madsen said. “But it’s always about looking at what’s next for me. … I haven’t gotten a win yet, so that’s definitely something I’m trying to achieve.”

Madsen almost got there with a second-place finish at the Daniel Island Invitational and still has one more opportunity in the regular season at the ECU Ironwood Invitational.

Not far behind Madsen was junior Vania Simont, securing a tie for ninth place with a score of 9-over par, her second-best placement of the season. Simont’s best finish of the year was a fifth-place finish at Daniel Island. Simont’s late-season surge has helped push the Pack to No. 41 in the nation.

For head coach Darby Sligh, Simont’s surge has come from improvements with the short stick.

“It’s about getting the putter back where it needs to be,” Sligh said. “She struggled for a bit with that, so we saw far fewer birdies for her in the fall. … She’s an integral part of what we do in the postseason. We have to have her coupled with Marie and [Senior] Lauren [Olivares Leon] at the top, and when she’s playing at her best, we’ve got enough depth.”

Olivares Leon tied for 11th with a tournament total of 10-over par, her fifth top-15 finish of the season. Her first two rounds were a struggle, finishing a combined 9-over through 36 holes. She regrouped in the final round with a 1-over par 73, salvaging the tournament.

Typically, hosting a tournament is seen as an advantage for golfers playing at a course that they are very familiar with, but course knowledge did not seem to be an advantage at the City of Oaks Collegiate.

“There’s a lot of distractions that end up happening during the week that play into it,” Sligh said. “For us, it was probably the change in course conditions from Monday to Friday. They were just incredibly different after we got three and a half inches of rain that dried out hard and fast. We just hadn’t played Lonnie like that.”

Playing at home may have also impacted the mentality of players heading into the tournament.

“I think it was also the added pressure of playing at home in front of the people that you love and don’t get to see you play very often,” Sligh said. “It’s really hard because golf is a sport where we have a lot of time to think because it is not reactionary … and to sit and marinate with that pressure, that is definitely a skill we need to work on.”

Olivares also faced the added pressure of high expectations. Boasting a top 50 World Ameteur Golf Ranking, she was invited to the August National Women’s Amateur — one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in the world — taking place April 2-5.

“I think I was just not in the right spot mentally,” Olivares said. “I think I was placing too many expectations for myself. … I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and trying to prove that I’m good enough to be there, even though I’m already going to be playing in it.”

The Wolfpack’s top three scorers placed top 15, but the next best golfer — not being scored as an individual — was senior Caitlin Whitehead, who tied for 48th with 24-over par. Graduate Jaclyn Kenzel placed 66th with a score of 29-over par.

The two NC State golfers who were designated as individuals, not helping the team score, sophomores Lea Ludwig and Leena Stephens placed tied for 33rd and 35th, respectively. Although their scores would not have won the tournament for the Pack, they could have provided a slight boost.

“I think that’s one of our toughest jobs,” Sligh said. “Making sure the right players are in the lineup because we aren’t a bench sport, and there’s a finality to golf that you don’t have in other sports — whoever you put in the lineups. … We look at everything, trying to figure out who’s going to be that player who comes in and helps us. And that’s probably the hardest thing that we do. You can get it wrong, so it’s about how many times you get it right.”

We will see how the lineups are adjusted for next week, especially with Olivares unavailable as the Pack heads to Greenville, North Carolina March 31-April 1 to play in the ECU Ironwood Invitational.