Women's golf finishes 3rd

By Jason Cohn

As Santa Clara students begin to see the first signs of an early spring, one group of athletes is taking advantage of the weather and working hard on the greens. Women's golf's spring season is underway and the ladies appear to be off to a strong start.

The team just returned from the Lady Braveheart Challenge in Riverside where they carded a third-place finish out of a field of 10 teams.

After positioning themselves in second place during a blustery first round, the Broncos found themselves one stroke ahead of UC Davis and nine behind the eventual tournament winners, San Diego State.

While Santa Clara picked up their game during the final round, attempting to cling to their one-stroke lead, Davis shot the best round of the day, dropping 18 strokes off their previous day's round, leaving Santa Clara to battle with Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo for a top-three finish.

Santa Clara was led by the consistent play of senior Candice Palmer who carded a pair of 78s for the weekend, earning herself a sixth-place finish in individual play.

Palmer, who has carried an 80-stroke per round scoring average over the past two seasons, provides strong leadership as the team captain and is the only player on the team with three years of collegiate experience under her belt.

Junior transfer Megan Stoddart had a strong showing in her spring debut, shooting a 163 for the weekend, which was good for a 17th-place individual finish.

After transferring from the University of Hawaii, Stoddart immediately impressed teammates and coaches by shooting a season-low 70 in her first round en route to winning the first tournament of the fall season at the Bronco Fall Invitational in Boise, Idaho.

"I really like the team chemistry here. The atmosphere is so much more supportive and fun. I've improved dramatically from where I was last year," Stoddart said.

According to Stoddart, coach Polly Schulze has created an atmosphere where the team is playing with a competitive attitude while having fun with each other at the same time.

"She's helped us in practice with everything. She's just a great coach who cares about all of us and would do anything for us," Stoddart proclaimed.

Schulze, in her fifth season as head coach, has led her team to two consecutive top-three finishes in the West Coast Conference Tournament while earning the first WCC Coach of the Year award in program history after the 2003-2004 season.

However, it's not just Schulze who has been winning conference accolades for the Broncos. Junior Samantha Trask is poised to make strong showings this season after earning all-WCC honors last season.

Trask has competed in every event since the beginning of her freshman season, and led the team in both her freshman and sophomore years with the lowest scoring average of 78 and 76.9 respectively. While Trask struggled this fall with some higher scoring rounds than usual, she had a solid final round at the Lady Braveheart this weekend, shooting an 81.

The team will also be looking for continued improvement from sophomore Corey Utsurogi who has already carded three top 25 finishes in her career -- two of which came as a freshman.

With a solid core of players, Schulze is looking to continue her program's improvement in the standings by setting specific goals for her team to accomplish during every practice.

Schulze also bolsters the team's competitive spirit by splitting the team into halves and holding mini tournaments during practice.

The Broncos are going to have to continue to raise their competitive levels because there are only four tournaments left until the WCC Championships begin in April.

Stoddart is taking a simple strategy into the team's upcoming schedule: "We just want to play as good as we can."

The Lady Broncos' next tournament will be played February 25-26 at the Northern Arizona Invitational in Sedona, Ariz.

Contact Jason Cohn at (408) 551-1918 or jrcohnstead@hotmail.com.