The men’s golf team continued its season Monday at the Westminster Fall Invitational. The team struggled, finishing 11th out of 12 teams in the field.

Head coach Sam Jones was frustrated with his team’s performance.

“I feel disappointed for sure,” said Jones. “I thought we did not play good golf at all. A lot of good players maybe had a little left to give, but overall it was not a solid day for us.”

The Yellow Jackets’ lowest scorer was junior Alex Orlandini, who shot 23-over par, finishing at 95. Freshman Luke Diel followed suit with a 98 and fellow freshman Jonathan Faber rounded out Waynesburg’s top three with a 102.

Right behind Faber was sophomore Dylan Nowakowski with a 103, and freshman Jacob McCuen finished off with a 111.

Nowakowski also mentioned the difficulty experienced on the day, not only by himself but the team as a whole.

“It was a bad day,” he said. “Nobody really played well, I could barely hit a fairway myself.”

According to Jones, neither he or the team didn’t have a lot to say after the round.

“Everyone was a little bit disappointed,” said Jones. “I did not want to say anything because I could see that the players themselves felt they could have done better.”

After the setback, Jones said the team has to move on in order to improve.

“We have to look forward,” said Jones. “We talked about how we can get better for the next match and how we can move forward.”

For Jones, with how the team has been playing and improving recently, these high scores seem unusual. There had been gradual improvement over the course of the season, according to Jones, but this tournament might have put the team’s strong mentality into jeopardy.

Despite this, Jones said he doesn’t feel the team is doomed after one sub-par day.

“This was one bad round,” said Jones.  “We can easily look back on this and learn from our mistakes.”

Jones isn’t sure exactly what the rest of the season holds for his team looking ahead.

“If I knew that I would use my powers for good,” he said.

Reflecting on how the team can improve, Jones said the key to the team gaining experience would be controlling its mentality.

“A simple way we can get better is to make sure that a single bad shot doesn’t turn into a long, drawn out hole,” said Jones.

The team’s main objective at the beginning of the season was to move up in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, and even though this match put a damper in their momentum, Jones felt that his team can still reach their target.

“Our goal is still to improve in the PAC standings,” said Jones. “We had one lousy match, yes, but we can’t let eighteen bad holes kill our spirits. Our goal is still to climb the standings.”

With its next match cancelled, Waynesburg’s next competition will be in the PAC Championships this weekend in Warren, Ohio.