Monroe, La. – The ULM women's golf team is set to open its 2017 spring schedule under first year head coach Joni Stephens in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Classic on February 27. The Warhawks look to build off of a fall campaign that showed progressive improvement in team scores and individual scoring averages.
“The main thing I've learned about this team is they are willing to work hard and are very open to coaching,” Stephens said. “Coming in here my first year my goal was to make practices more productive so that as a team we could be making more progress and feeling more confident in what we were doing.”
Fall Recap
The Warhawks competed in four tournaments during the fall, highlighted by a team-best fourth place finish in the Golden Eagle Jam in mid-October. In all four tournaments the Warhawks were led by Shani White, who had her best individual finish of the fall when she placed sixth in the same Golden Eagle Jam. She led the Warhawks throughout the fall with a 75.91 scoring average.
“I think as we progressed throughout the fall and the players learned my coaching style and how I approach things on the golf course, they were not as afraid to make mistakes and that increased confidence on the team as a whole,” Stephens said. “The biggest thing in the game of golf is that you cannot play fearful. We can't play trying not to make mistakes and they had been doing that in the past.”
Players
Overall, ULM was led by White in the fall, highlighted by her sixth place finish in the Golden Eagle Jam. White's second round in that tournament was her best individual round, as she shot 72. She was one of three Warhawks to play in all four tournaments, joined by Ashton Maddaloni and Olivia Landberg. Maddaloni had a 78.25 scoring average with her best finish coming as a tie for 13th at the MSU/Payne Stewart Memorial event in September, while Landberg's best finish was a tie for 25th in the Golden Eagle Jam. Devanshi Naik had a successful fall as well with her best finish a tie for seventh, highlighted by scores of 71 and 73, at the Golden Eagle Jam.
Schedule
The Warhawks open the 2017 spring slate on February 27 in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Classic and then travel down to Dallas to compete in the ORU/SFA Spring Break Invite. ULM then heads to the John Kirk Panther Intercollegiate in Stockbridge, Ga. before closing the regular season with a pair of matches in Kentucky as they compete in the EKU Colonel Classic and the Jan Weaver Murray State Invitational. The Sun Belt Championship will be played April 17-19 at the Fighting Joe Course in Muscle Shoals, Ala.
“I feel like we have the ability if we continue to progress like we did in the fall to be top five in our conference and that is our goal this season,” Stephens said. “If we hit that goal then we have definitely made some really good progress this year and have something to build on going forward in the future.”
