The women’s golf team finished the fall season undefeated against Division II competition, according to Head Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach Brent Nicoson. The team started the season placing first in the University of Indianapolis Invitational and continued to place first in other invitationals throughout the fall season. This resulted in the team being ranked No. 1 from the beginning through the end of the season.
Senior golfer Kennedy Holtsclaw said she had many positive comments about the end of the season. The team was unsure how well the season would go for them with the loss of four seniors last year, three of which, according to Holtsclaw, were in the top five of their team.
“Overall we’ve handled it super well. We finished the season with four wins, we won every tournament that was against Division I teams and then we also won the Ball State tournament, which was mostly Division I teams. So our only loss came at the University of Kentucky Tournamen…” Holtsclaw said. “But overall it’s been really good. We’ve still steadily gotten better.”
Despite the team’s success this season, Nicoson said there is always room to improve.
“We definitely need to get more consistent. Even though we’re ranked No. 1 right now, you know springtime can bring a totally different look to the team, so we have to be really prepared when we come out,” Nicoson said. “I wouldn’t say there are any changes, we just need to be more consistent in what we’re doing. Our game plan has worked for a few years now, so we’ll stick to the same game plans that we’ve done.”
Holtsclaw said she believes that improvement is a team goal as well. She said that with the loss of the seniors from last year, they could be considered a younger team this year. With two seniors, a junior, a sophomore and a freshman, Holtsclaw said that there is not much experience on the team.
“…If we grow and help the younger ones… we could really, really excel.”
“There were so many times where we would just sit down after rounds and talk about things we could improve on, so just looking into those areas of improvement over off season and digging into them and getting better,” Holtsclaw said. “ I think that would be really great for us because, like I said, we did so well this fall but there were still those areas that we saw we could grow in. So if we grow and help the younger ones get that kind of more experience, like mental game, then I think we could really, really excel.”
According to both Holtsclaw and Nicoson, the team’s dynamic and closeness can be reasons for their success. Holtsclaw said that the small team allowed them to instantly have chemistry, and that Nicoson does a good job of recruiting people that he knows contribute to that.
“He recruits not just for the players. Obviously you want someone that’s good at golf to come here with our program being the way it is, but he looks more at like personality as well,” Holtsclaw said. “So like when he’s recruiting he really looks to make sure that it’s someone that’s going to fit in with the group and what we stand for.”
According to Nicoson, he intends for the girls on the team to work very hard during off season so they can be ready to dominate this upcoming spring.
