After opening the season with a ninth place finish at Dartmouth College against primarily Division I teams, the women's golf team struck back by taking third the next weekend at the Bryant Invitational. The Bryant marked the beginning of a streak of four tournaments where they finished at the top of the Division III leaderboard three times. Furthermore, Jeff golfers placed at the top of the leaderboard in two of those tournaments.
With regard to the team's success, Assistant Coach Kay Cowperthwaite said, "I think we've certainly proven ourselves to be one of the top Division III teams in our region." This fall season can actually be seen as a continuation of last last spring's season. Amherst retained four golfers, all of whom had significant tournament experience. This provided the Jeffs with enough depth to overcome the rare individual high score. The starting five placed in different orders in each tournament, while two players won individual tournament titles.
Among the winners, were the two senior captains, Limpert and Katie Gravel. Coach Cowperthwaite attributes much of the excellent performance to their leadership. "[They] did an excellent job in leading this team," she said. "They help set the tone of consistency and positive attitude."
While Limpert's performance was rock solid, Gravel's was spectacular. Gravel finished as the top Jeff golfer three times and won the individual title in the final tournament at Wellesley. However, her personal highlight came earlier in the week at Williams. After she shot a 78, she said, "Breaking 80 in a college tournament has been a goal that has taken a frustratingly long time to achieve."
The team boasts a solid sophomore trio of Sarah Godwin, Meg Sullivan and Emily Foran who will lead the team in the future. Foran, in particular, looks to be most likely to take over the top spot in the lineup, having finished as the top Jeff twice and having won the individual title at the Williams Invitational. However, the team will still have the services of their captains in the spring, when they look to do more than just qualify for their third straight NCAA Tournament.
Potential might be the buzz word for the men's team as well. As individuals, the Jeffs had a great lineup, with each player fully capable of shooting in the mid to low seventies. However good the team was on paper, they failed to translate this into results on the course this fall. Early in the season, sophomore Mike Valentine said, "We have a very talented team with great depth." Unfortunately, the team started slow and never seemed to be able to gather any momentum despite several individual feats.
Amherst's season was wholly mediocre, as they never finished at the top, nor bottom, of the leaderboard. They placed fifth against nine other NESCAC opponents at the conference tournament, and in the final outing of the season, the NEIGA Fall Championships, they placed 25th in a 42-team field that featured many of their rivals. Valentine's comment did prove true, at least in part.
The team showed incredible talent, led by senior captains Jude Volek and Todd Ballaban. Volek, after a rough start at the Duke Nelson, rallied back and was Amherst's regular number two golfer. Ballaban finished his senior fall having finished as the best Jeff golfer twice. But the real story of the season was the standout play of Justin Sharaf '05 who was Amherst's top player four out of five times, capped with an eighth-place finish at the NESCAC Championships which earned him a Second-Team All NESCAC award. Unfortunately, his scores alone were not sufficient to raise Amherst to the next level. "Hopefully, we can gain some confidence from our spring break trip and rally with a strong senior spring and Little III Tournament," concluded Ballaban.