Women’s golf takes a shot at SIUE tourney

The University of South Dakota women’s golf team will be back in the swing of things as they travel the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Intercollegiate Sept. 24-25.

This will be the team’s second meet of the season after a rough start in Lincoln, Neb. during the Chip N’ Club Invitational.

“Our main goal when working with such a young team is building confidence and also experience” said head coach Nick Hovden on working with this year’s golfer’s.

“It’s about getting them to believe that they can compete and have themselves shooting lower scores.”

Leading the way for the Coyotes is freshman Victoria Grasso.

Grasso shot a 252 on her way to 50th place finish in Lincoln followed by Ellie Ament, who tied for 55th with a 256.

“My main goal going into this meet is to be more comfortable on the course,” Ament said.

Ament, who is coming off of her first collegiate meet, is also hoping to get into a groove on the course next week.

She said if they have a good support system and work together as team, they can be an effective unit.

The team is also hoping to get productive outings from junior Hailey Sheldal and senior Nicole Funck.

Hovden said that by getting the first meet out of the way, nerves will begin to die down for some of the players, resulting in lower scores.

He hopes the team can show some “more swagger” that he knows they each have.

“It just takes time. We’ll get there eventually. I believe it and the girls believe it. And that’s what’s most important,” Hovden said.

Ultimately Hovden hopes his players have fun on the course and will ease into mid-season form as quickly as possible.

The season is very young and the Coyotes are going to continue swinging away.

Following the SIUE Intercollegiate, the Coyotes will return home to prepare for the SDSU Jackrabbit Fall Invitational scheduled for Sept. 30- Oct. 1 in Sioux Falls.