With the fall 2013 season at a close, the spring season won’t begin again for the Coyotes until February, however both the men’s and women’s golf teams are continuing work in the DakotaDome.
The fall season had notable finishes for both the men’s and women’s teams, but as head coach Nick Hovden said, one the biggest moments of the fall was first-year Brenna Lervick’s first place finish at the South Dakota State Tournament.
“Lervick had four top 10 finishes,” Hovden said. “She also won the (South Dakota State Tournament), which was huge for us, we’ve never had anyone win a tournament since we moved to Division I.”
Hovden said that the men’s team also had great individual success, but both teams are working toward getting more consistency with the rest of the team.
“Building off that individual success and getting more consistency with the team (is a goal),” Hovden said. “Also, not only finishing in the middle of the pack in these tournaments but being up in contention towards the last day of each tournament would be a huge goal for us.”
One of the biggest obstacles both Hovden and Lervick acknowledged about training in the winter is the DakotaDome’s facilities.
“It would be great to have a golf specific building that we could use that would give us more of chance to work on short game, which is often the hardest part to find an indoor facility with a place to putt and chip since that is such a vital part of anyone’s game,” Lervick said. “But in reality, we are lucky to have the Dome at our disposal to go in and hit balls whenever we really want.”
To keep the rust off the team, Hovden said work in the weight room will be crucial to the success in the spring.
“Our goals in the next two months before we start traveling again in February is to get in a lot of conditioning and work hard in the weight room,” Hovden said. “We’re going to get our swings and hitting in at night, but for the most part, in the winter months, we’re just trying to stay loose getting ready for the spring.”
Both teams’ goal going into the spring 2014 season is to grow on the success experienced in the fall season. The men finished in the top ten in every tournament during the fall. While the women didn’t finish as high in every tournament, they did finish third at the North Dakota Tournament Sept. 17.
Hovden said the men are trying to repeat success they had last spring, they finished second in the Summit League Tournament behind the University of Missouri Kansas City, who left the conference to go to the Western Athletic Conference.
However, Hovden said the addition of Denver to the conference wouldn’t make the Coyote men’s attempts at a first place finish this year any easier.
“With Denver joining the conference and UMKC, last years champions, leaving it’s still going to be difficult,” Hovden said. “I think we definitely have the tools to make a run at it again this year.”
Both the men and the women’s teams will continue their practicing until February, when the spring season officially begins.
