After completing a competitive regular season, the UNI women’s golf team hit the road to travel to Chesterton, Ind., for the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

A strong showing by a string of Panther sophomores led Northern Iowa to tie their best ever finish at the MVC Championships, finishing in second place behind Southern Illinois.

Sophomore Sydney Eaton finished second overall individually after a sudden death round against Missouri State’s Abby Cavaiani, which propelled the purple and gold to a second-place finish.

Going into Tuesday, the Panther women were sitting at seventh place after the first two days of the tournament. However, all five golfers had strong overall showings to push the team up the standings into the tournament’s runner-up.

Sophomores Anne Gradoville, Hannah Bermel and Emily Snelling all shot their best rounds of the championships. Bermel jumped 20 spots on the leaderboard and finished with being tied for fifth place overall. She was also awarded the MVC’s Elite 17 Award, which is given to the athlete participating in the tournament with the highest grade-point-average.

On April 16, the UNI men’s golf team was in Macomb, Ill., for the Beu Mussatto Invitational. Because the first day of the tournament was canceled because of weather, the Panthers had to play all 36 holes in the only other day of the tournament.

Northern Iowa finished in fifth place overall, with freshman Tommy Doyle leading the team by shooting 79, good enough for 17th overall.

The Panther men will next hit the links on Monday and Tuesday, April 22 and 23, for the Missouri Valley Conference Championships to round out their season.