Bucknell women’s golf kicked off their fall season on Monday and Tuesday in Williamsburg, Va. at the William & Mary Fall Invitational. The 10 team tournament was held at the Kingsmill Resort River Course, featuring Bucknell and William and Mary, along with Richmond, Elon, Charleston Southern, Towson, South Dakota State, Delaware State, Longwood and Radford.

The Bison struggled as a team to stay in contention over the weekend, finishing 10th out of 10 in the overall team leaderboard with a cumulative score of +67. Bucknell finished eighth in average scoring on par three’s (3.25), 10th on par fours (4.57), and seventh on par fives (5.13). The Orange & Blue struggled the most on the par fours over Monday and Tuesday, as none of the Bison girls finished in the top 20 in average scoring. The team finished five strokes behind Delaware State, who ended the two day tournament in ninth place. Even with a last place finish, there were some positives for the team. This was Bison women’s golf’s best team score ever at Kingsmill, and their best team score ever at a fall opener from an away venue. 

Although Bucknell struggled in the team statistics, the Bison had three athletes finish in the top 35 of the individual category. Paige Richter ’26 finished T19 at +11, Kelsey Yi ’24 grabbed a T23 spot at +12, and Tara Thomas ’25 played her way into a T33 performance at +18. Yi also carded her best score ever in the third and final round with a +2 74.

Erin Drahnak ’26 was excited to finally get out there with her new teammates.

“Everyone was excited to see each other again,” she said. “The camaraderie of the team was super and sweet because we all hyped each other up for the matches.”

They have their next challenge this weekend at the Nittany Lion Invitational in Happy Valley. Even with the success of the W&M Invitational, Drahnak expresses the team is hungry for bigger things.

“We were all very excited for the first tournament,” she said. “We all worked hard and are ready to put our skills to the test.”

With Bison women’s golf riding high after their best team score in a fall debut ever at anywhere besides Bucknell, and Yi turning heads with a personal best 74, we will see what they have in store at University Park this weekend.