The University of Indianapolis men’s and women’s golf teams are eyeing down their postseason tournaments, with both the GLVC tournament and the NCAA tournament coming up. Both teams are ranked—the men No.4 and the women No.2—in their regions, according to UIndy Athletics. Head Coach Brent Nicoson said the teams’ only goal as they approach postseason tournaments is to be victorious.
“The goal is to win, there is no other option,” Nicoson said. “… Ultimately, we just have to keep surviving, advancing. Conference is its own standalone tournament, it’s kind of different than the NCAA. When we get to regional, our goal is to get in that top four and survive and advance to get to a national championship and try to play for that. Anything can happen at that point. You get hot one weekend, you never know what can happen.”
Nicoson said the lineup for the men’s team is made up of five true freshmen. Regardless of their youth, Nicoson said, the team has performed well, including a win at the Saginaw Valley State University Spring Break Invitational, according to UIndy Athletics.
“They’ve moved up to fourth in the region, back in the top 30 in the country, and that’s tough to do with with five true freshmen,” Nicoson said. “They are tireless workers … it’s a little bit of a roller coaster now and then, and sometimes it gets tough to finish tournaments, but I couldn’t be more happy with where our men’s team is right now.”
According to Nicoson, the women’s team had been struggling through the last bit of their season, but he hopes to use their last tournament—The University of Missouri-St. Louis Spring Invitational on April 14-15—as a chance to turn the tides. Despite the struggles they have had, Nicoson said he is hoping the team will peak at the right time as they prepare for the postseason.
“It’s been a little tougher the last couple of weeks, we won tournament, so that’s great to know that we can win without our best game,” Nicoson said. “But it took a record of performance from Anci [Dy] for us to be able to do that. … It’s a young team on both sides, but they work hard and I’m not worried about their youth. They’ve played enough golf to still say they’re experienced.”
Sophomore golfer Alice Webb said the team is focused on consistency and confidence as they head into postseason. She said they try not to get distracted by winning, but rather playing the same golf they always do and performing their best in every tournament.
“We have to earn our way there,” Webb said. “Conference is conference, our first postseason competition, and we just go in with the mindset to play our own game play, play steady golf, play UIndy Golf, as our coach says. Basically, just kind of show everyone that we are solid.”
Nicoson agreed confidence is a key component of the team’s search for postseason success. He said it is important for his teams, because they are so young, to stay confident in themselves and the preparation they have done.
“It’s such a roller coaster mentally, I don’t think people realize that,” Nicoson said. “But our philosophy is never going to change, it’s nothing we’re going to do extra, other than making sure we’re just zoned in and taking care of our bodies and getting rest and making sure academics are covered. … We concentrate on sticking to the process of being successful not chasing something. As long as they keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’re going to be fine and that’s what we’re going to just stick to what we do.” Webb said the team has been very steady all season, and that hopefully their hard work will build into momentum as the team heads into postseason. The men’s team played their GLVC Tournament April 21-23, and are looking ahead at the DII Midwest Superregional on May 9-11, according to UIndy Athletics. The women’s team plays for the conference championship April 26-28, and in the DII East Regional on May 6-8.
