Victory seems to fit sophomore Avery Kiser and the women's golf team to a tee.
The team began their season last weekend in Reston, VA at the first annual Georgetown Hoyas Invitational. The remaining competition included St. John's, Boston College, Rutgers, Hofstra, Hartford, Sienna, Lehigh, Dartmouth, Fairfield, Long Island University, Penn and Hampton. The Tigers, who finished last year's fall season with an Eastern College Athletic Conference championship, picked up right where they left off, winning the invitational by nine strokes. Kiser continued her dominance, earning medallist honors.
"My rounds from last weekend at Georgetown should be a good indication of how I can play," Kiser said. "I was really pleased with the bar hat I set early on."
The Tigers headed to Virginia with restrained optimism. Coming from a campus blanketed by snow well into March, the women had not been outside before their spring break training trip to Pensacola, Fl. Practicing with mats and nets is no substitute for real course time.
Princeton was no doubt aware of its rusty swings at the end of the first round. Trailing by two strokes after the first day, it was giving up clutch shots to teams that the Tigers should have had no troubling tackling. With some players turning in scores in the mid-80s, a victory was by no means certain.
The Tigers came out swinging (literally) for the second round. With freshman Emma Stachowicz shooting a 74 — a 10-stroke improvement over her first day's performance — the entire Tiger team seemed reinvigorated. But putting is what differentiated day one and day two for the Tigers. As they began making more putts and more birdies, the scores improved dramatically. Nearly every member of the team showed significant improvement on the second day of the tournament. Seniors Vanessa Redman and Megan Milam showed improvement, registering an 84-81 and an 85-81 respectively. "It was a great second round for the Tigers shooting a 303 which is averaging just under 76 per player," head coach Eric Stein said.
Ivy league adversary, Penn, finished second with a two day total of 631. Host Georgetown placed third with a 638 and Long Island finished fourth with a 36-hole score of 640.
Kiser again dominated the field with her one under par 71, claiming the individual title for the day.
"I was just trying to get back into my routine," Kiser said. "It was really nice just to be outside and playing golf and so the numbers really weren't as important as having fun and being back in season."
Kiser's 'routine' is clearly winning, as she has captured all but one medallist standing during the Tiger's regular collegiate season. While the team seemed to beat its opponents easily, the true focus is a capture of this year's Ivy League Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA championship, something they last accomplished in 2001. While they were able to defeat Dartmouth and rising star Penn, the competition of their season is poised to increase steadily. Princeton will face competition at William and Mary next week and James Madison in two weekends. Southern schools have consistently given golf squads from the Northeast difficulty due to their ability to practice during the winter season.
Despite a strengthened Quaker squad, the Tiger's main Ivy competitor will be perennial powerhouse Yale. The Tigers have already lost earlier this year by six strokes to the Elis.
"Our biggest competition this season will be with Yale, just as it has been for the four years I have been on the team," senior Vanessa Redman said.
Yale, coached by former Princetonian Mary Moan '97, spent spring break in Hawaii competing in the Dr. Thompson Rainbow Tournament. While the Elis were only able to score an eighth place finish out of a field of 17, it is not necessarily an indication of a fall off for the women of Yale.
Also, the Tigers should not underestimate Brown. While Brown has not historically been an Ivy League contender, the ECAC championship last fall proved that anything could happen. It was only after a six-hole playoff with Brown's Elizabeth Carpenter that Kiser was able to pull out a one stroke victory winning both personal and team titles.
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