The reigning Big East conference champions, The Seton Hall women’s golf team will begin their journey toward defending their title this weekend in Kiawah Island, S.C., at the Kiawah Island Classic Tournament.
Seton Hall Athletics
The tournament is hosted by the College of Charleston and will take place at two different courses, Osprey Point and Oak Point. The first day the team will play Osprey Point, followed by Oak Point on the second day of the tournament. The top 20 teams of the tournament will play Osprey point again the third day while the bottom 20 will play again at Oak Point. This will be the team’s first time in this tournament and playing at either course.
In total, 40 teams will play in the tournament; it is the largest college golf tournament in the country. This is the team’s first of four tournaments that they will play this season.
Even though the team hasn’t competed since October, they have been very busy in the off season getting ready for spring play to start up. “We have worked so hard and we’ve had so much fun,” Head coach Sarah Doell said. “We’ve been working out four days a week. Two days a week we work on cardio-which the girls design and I moderate. The other two days we work with our strength trainer. We also do four hours a week in the golf room working on putting and chipping, two hours a week in the field house chipping, and a couple hours a week working on full swing.”
Due to the weather, the team hasn’t been able to do much practicing outside. Aside from staying indoors to practice, the team has also worked on their mental state going into the upcoming spring season.
“We’ve talked a lot about managing our emotions and expectations,” Doell said. “We read a book as a team over the break and we’ve done a lot more communicating because there’s opportunity for a lot of pressure right now. We want to keep our confidence from the fall. It’s hard to come out of the winter and go into spring play.”
Coach Doell has also ensured that each of her players has been getting adequate sleep, is in good shape, and feels confident about this upcoming tournament. “Each girl has been working on something different,” she said. “But for each of them it’s been making sure they feel well-rounded going into this weekend.”
As reigning Big East champions, the thought of defending said title hasn’t slipped the minds of the coaching staff and players. “We’ve talked about defending our title since August 23rd. [First day of fall season] That is the long term goal, everything we do between now and then is what matters. We have to believe we’re going to win the Big East and be accountable for what we’re doing. ”
The tournament will start this Sunday and will continue into Tuesday. After this tournament, the team has a little less than a week until their next tournament, the Rio Verde Invitational.
Olivia Mulvihill can be reached at olivia.mulvihill@student.shu.edu
