A year ago, any sports team would have loved to be compared to the New England Patriots. Nowadays, the Boston University golf team wants to shed that comparison as quickly as possible.
After a successful 2007 season, in which the Terriers captured two tournament titles (Jack Leaman and Mount Holyoke Invitationals), the year ended on a sour note with a disappointing third-place finish at the America East Championship, where BU had tasted the fruits of victory the previous two years.
“Last year, we had our worst performance of the season (at the AE Championship),” BU coach Tom Varnum, who returns for a second season, said. “In a way, and I hate to say this, we were a bit like the Patriots.”
One tool the Terriers intend to utilize in order to rid themselves of the aforementioned analogy is experience, as five of the top six golfers return for another campaign. Of those five returnees, three different golfers carded BU’s lowest score in at least two different tournaments.
Sophomore Ana Johnson led BU in the Massachusetts State and Sacred Heart Invitationals as a freshman last year, while her junior counterpart Kaitlyn Mardeusz touted the lowest scorecard in the Mount Holyoke and Jack Leamon Invitationals, earning America East Golf Performer of the Week honors for her effort in the latter.
Combine those two with senior Allison Hamilton, who led the team with low scores on five different occasions (including the AE Championship), and Varnum should have quite a fight for the top spot with each coming tournament.
“I hope all three break from the pack, and they should be very difficult to beat,” Varnum said. “They all can be very consistent and very successful. (The competition between the three) can only help the team.”
Varnum was also quick to point out the efforts of senior Lauren Stong. Before shooting a BU-low 165 in the Rutgers Invitational last fall, Stong won the America East individual title in 2007. Stong and Hamilton were both unanimously elected co-captains for the upcoming season, an indication of how highly the women are regarded by their fellow golfers.
As captains, Stong and Hamilton will welcome three new freshmen into the mix this season. Courtney Dampolo, Natasha Port and Veronica Rodriguez will all vie for that elusive fifth tournament spot. Before that, they must acclimate themselves to their new NCAA environment.
“[The freshmen] will have a little bit of a learning curve I think,” Varnum said. “Luckily, we have the luxury of letting them learn and develop at their own pace. However, I will not hesitate to put any of the freshmen into a tournament if the need should arise.”
Add these incoming freshmen to the tournament-tested upperclassmen, and the team should have plenty of depth to take on all challengers. With three key tournaments in the coming weeks (Dartmouth Invitational this weekend, a title defense at the Mount Holyoke Invitational and BU’s own Terrier Shootout), Varnum’s squad is looking to get out of the blocks quickly.
“If we can get off to a good start, we will assuredly be in contention for the rest of the season,” Varnum said.
However, do not think for a second that these Terriers have forgotten about that America East Championship that lurks at the end of the schedule.
“Everything we do is to get that trophy,” Varnum said.