Photo Credit: Idaho State Athletics
Sasha Ambrose
Sports Reporter
This season, the team is looking to build on what second-year head coach Dallen Atkin’s has built and is in the early stages of preparing for better results at the Big Sky Conference Championship this spring.
Spirits were high as the women’s golf team geared up for its first meet in Anaconda, Montana Sept. 10-11, the Battle at Old Works.
“I think it was a great step in the right direction for our goal,” Atkins said. “I just want to keep that momentum going for this season. We set some personal bests last year. Although, we came in last in the conference, in the last two days, we set out competitively.”
This season’s team is filled with new blood, with half of the team comprised of freshmen looking to get a solid first collegiate season under their belts.
“I’m seeing better scores than were posted last year, so these upperclassmen are seeing this, and realizing they need to step up,” Atkins said. “There are things that these freshmen haven’t experienced yet, like nerves from competing at the collegiate level, but they have to go out and get that experience.”
This fall, the team has four tournaments to prepare for tougher competition coming this spring.
Following the Battle at Old Works, ISU will travel to Coeur’d Alene for the CDA shootout on Sept. 17, will travel to Aurora, Oregon for the 2018 Rose City Collegiate on Oct. 1, and will close the fall season by traveling to Tacoma for the 2018 Pat Lesser-Harbottle Invitational.
“Three of our returners are playing really well right now, [senior] Abby Kadrmas, [junior] Hadley Hersh, and [senior] Brooke Williams,” Atkins said. “The freshmen [Lexi Rowe and Tya Seth] are really pushing the competition right now. When you have these freshmen coming in and pushing them, you’ll see everyone posting better scores.”
This season, the girls are playing to win, even against bigger schools. They’re making goals, practicing for all kinds of situations and bonding as a team to promote unity and teamsmanship.
“Our goal is finishing top five,” Atkins said. “I know it’s kind of a big jump, going from last to fifth, but we know that we’re prepared to make that. If we could break that top five, it would be a monumental shift for us.”
Part of the new mindset for this year is building confidence in the players, so once they get to the spring season in April, they can play alongside the big schools knowing they’re the best they can be.
“I’ve got a couple girls who want to go out and win the whole thing, and I think they’ve got the skills to go out and do it,” Atkins said. “But I’m hoping to go out and place in the middle of the pack, so I can show our girls that they have what it takes to go out there and play with these bigger schools. If we can keep up with them, it’ll show our girls that they can play with them, they’ll go a long way this season, they’ll do great things.”
To start placing higher in tournaments with those bigger schools, Atkins is implementing some new strategies for the team to work on during practices.
“The biggest change that we’ve kind of done, we’ve started to do more course preparation, it’s not just going out and practicing chipping or driving, we’re doing situational golfing,” Atkins said. “We play with purpose. Every shot has a purpose.”
The team has a long way to go to attain a top-five position in the conference, but Atkins is confident that his players have the skills to make it all the way.
“We’re in a good state,” Atkins said. “When you have that many new people come into a program, you kind of have the upperclassmen trying to show who’s on top,” said Atkins. “But I think we’re moving away from that, they’re forming friendships. I’m proud of the upperclassmen for taking them under their wing and showing them the ropes.”
