The Marquette men’s golf team entered the final round at the Firestone Invitational 24 shots back of tournament leader Eastern Michigan and did little to help its cause, shooting 18-over par as a team in the final round Tuesday.

However, the players’ final day jumped them from their ninth-place start into an eighth-place tie with Pacific at 42-over par by day’s end. Marquette finished the day 37 shots back of tournament victor St. Mary’s.

Marquette’s players shot over-par scores across the board, with the day’s best round coming from redshirt junior Ben Sieg, who shot a 2-over-par 74. He finished the tournament at 15-over-par 231 and tied for 51st place.

While Sieg had the day’s best round for Marquette, he wasn’t satisfied with his performance.

“By no means am I happy about my score (Tuesday). I saw a lot of positives, and after the first day with no positives at least something good came from today,” Sieg said. “Any time you shoot 74 and move up the leaderboard, you know it was a hard day all around.”

Sophomore Ryan Prickette came into the final round with the best score of the tournament for Marquette and by day’s end that held up as he shot a 6-over-par 78 in the final round to finish the tournament at 9-over-par 225 and tied for 26th place.

Coach Tim Grogan was pleased with Sieg’s final-day performance and used it to describe the performance he demands of all players in future events.

“Five guys have to be ready to play with the intensity and focus necessary for solid rounds,” Grogan said. “We’re showing small glimpses of that with Ryan’s performance Monday and Ben’s (Tuesday) but we need everyone.”

Sieg said the team’s poor performance was partially due to the extensive traveling the team has done over the last three weeks.

“This is our third straight week traveling, and I know I’m kind of mentally drained,” Sieg said. “I can’t speak for the rest of the guys, but I think they may have similar thoughts.”

Prickette agreed the extensive travel has been tough but said narrower fairways than were at the Xavier Invitational kept the team from performing well.

“If you missed a fairway you were in a lot of trouble,” Prickette said. “I definitely struggled to keep the ball in a position to put it on the green.”

The team has 15 days until Match Play at Pine Needles starts on Oct. 30. Grogan said there won’t be any changes made to how the team prepares for future tournaments.

“We’ve gone through a three-week stretch where we haven’t played well,” Grogan said. “It’s not from a lack of effort; we just have to play better.”