PINEHURST, N.C. – Rutgers women's golf produced a runner-up result at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate on Tuesday in Pinehurst, Georgia. The Scarlet Knights finished just one stroke behind winner St. John's (897: 300-301-296) to earn its highest team result of the spring campaign, as RU closed out the invite with a tournament-high 34 birdies across three rounds.

RU carded a 34-over-par 898 (301-298-299) to place two strokes ahead of third-place finisher UNC Greensboro (900: 304-395-301). Junior Maeve Rossi and sophomore Leigha Devine both closed the tournament with top-10 scorecards, as Rossi tied for third while Devine tied for ninth. UNC Greensboro's Tara Bettle earned individual honors with her three-under-par 213 (72-68-73).

"We came up short today," said head coach Kari Williams. "Taking second place by one stroke in a three day tournament is really hard because everyone can think of one shot they would like to have back. I'm proud of the way they battled back after starting the morning slow and we ended up with some good rounds today. St. John's played well this week and we just need to take this experience and use it to prepare for our last two events of the season." 

Rossi moved up three spots on the leaderboard with her one-over-par 73 on Tuesday, as she tied for third with a six-over-par 222 (75-74-73). It marked her third top-10 result in her last four outings, as the Milan, Italy, native also finished tied for sixth at the River Landing Classic on March 9 and tied for 10th at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate on March 16.

"I got off to a slow start this morning but was able to take advantage of a few scoring chances in the middle of the round," Rossi said. "My irons were accurate today and I drove the ball well. We were excited to contend for the lead and we will definitely learn from this event."

Devine also placed within the top 10 with her tied-for-ninth 226 (75-74-77), while sophomore Anna-Maria Diederichs moved up 11 spots with her even 72 to tie for 11th (227: 78-77-72). Freshman Rikke Nordvik (229: 77-75-77) and graduate student Manon Tounalom (230: 74-75-81) rounded out the team scorecard 15th and tied for 16th, respectively, while sophomore Sun Hwang tied for 30th competing as an individual (236: 81-77-78).

Rutgers will compete with Seton Hall and St. John's on Saturday, April 3 at the Bayonne Golf Club. RU's next stroke-play event will be April 17-18 at the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington.

Pinehurst Intercollegiate Results

Place	Player	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
T3	Maeve Rossi (2)	75 (+3)	74 (+2)	73 (+1)	222 (+6)
T9	Leigha Devine (3)	75 (+3)	74 (+2)	77 (+5)	226 (+10)
T11	Anna-Maria Diederichs (1)	78 (+6)	77 (+5)	72 (E)	227 (+11)
15	Rikke Nordvik (5)	77 (+5)	75 (+3)	77 (+5)	229 (+13)
T16	Manon Tounalom (4)	74 (+2)	75 (+3)	81 (+9)	230 (+14)
T30	Sun Hwang (Ind.)	81 (+9)	77 (+5)	78 (+6)	236 (+20)
2	Rutgers	301 (+13)	298 (+10)	299 (+11)	898 (+34)