By Sam Klug | sam.klug@bsu.edu
MUNCIE, Ind. – The Cardinals women’s golf team returns to the links this fall looking for an exciting season. Finishing fourth in the Mid-American Conference last season, the Cardinals return eight out of nine players from last year’s team, including All-MAC Second Team junior Sarah Gallagher.
“I think it’s the fact we have some experience, we return eight players from last year, and we haven’t been a very experienced squad my first couple of years,” head coach Cameron Andry said. “We’ve been breaking in some players, so I am hoping we reap the benefits of some of the experiences we gained the last couple of years.”
This year’s edition of the women’s golf team has real, raw potential, including tournament winners, and players who have gotten all-conference and all-American recognition on and off the golf course. They also are a very international team, having five players hail from countries other than the United States. They also don’t have a single player from the state of Indiana on their roster, showing how broadly Coach Andry’s recruiting has become.
When it comes to what this team is made of, and how tight-knit they are as a team, Coach Andry speaks volumes to this group of girls.
“Well, I think only one new face coming into this year… it’s probably more of a player lead team than we’ve had in the past, and that’s the goal,” Andry said. “Those are the teams that can always always achieve the most is when the players have ownership and take the lead.”
The Cardinals’ tough fall campaign includes many exciting tournaments as they travel to South Carolina, Arkansas, and Illinois. They will also play host to the Brittany Kelly Classic on Sept. 16-17.
The spring side of the calendar brings even more challenges, including trips to Arizona, Puerto, Rico, and Georgia, and to Columbus, Ohio for the Theresa Hession Buckeye Invitation. The crowning and most notable part of the schedule is hosting the MAC Women’s Golf Championship, an event never hosted by Ball State.
The MAC Women’s Team Championship has also never been won by anyone other than Kent State, having won 25 straight MAC championships. Kent State has also dominated the individual side of the tournament, having a champion in 20 out of the 25 years they have won the tournament.
Goals are a highly talked about point for this year’s team, especially having the privilege of hosting the coveted MAC Championship on their home course. After setting many records last season, the Cardinals will look to return to aim higher, by winning tournaments and breaking their records.
“This year I would like to win a tournament at some point… again as a team, that would be amazing. We are playing in a lot of high-end tournaments this year, [with] a lot of good schools,” Gallagher said. Finishing as best as we can, and hopefully a conference we can win, seeming that it’s at Delaware [Country Club], our home course.”