The women's team, led by Captain Jaime Ratner '02, expects to attend bigger tournaments this season, including the Massachussetts State Championships and the Northeast Intercollegiate Championships. In anticipation, they have been practicing indoors for the past three weeks. The team has worked with medicine and stability balls in preparation for this expanded competition.
During the fall season, the Jeffs faced some heavy Division I competition to start the season. However, the highlight of the season was the win over Williams College to cap the fall campaign.
The rest of this fairly young team includes sophomores Kasarin Chakkaphak, Kathaleen Gravel and Jean Limpert and freshman standout Kathryn Kuchefski.
The women will see their first action over spring break, when they will travel to New Smyrna, Fla. to play a match against Embry Riddle College. "We had a good fall season," said Kuchefsky. "From what we've seen, people's games have definitely improved from last season because of a greater confidence within themselves. It will be exciting to see how we do when we finally begin playing outside." After Riddle, the women's team will play in their first tournament the weekend after spring break at the Boston College Invitational.
The men's golf team, on the other hand, didn't play up to expectations last season. They finished off their fall season placing 25th in the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championships and tying Middlebury College for second place in the NESCAC Championship Tournament. Unfortunately, this knocked them out of contention for the NCAA Championship this season so they will gear up for the Little Three Tournament.
This season, the men's team will be led by Michael Blaisdell '02 as well as strong players including Mark Still '01 and Todd Ballaban '03, who was named First-Team All-NESCAC after his second-place finish at the NESCAC Championship last season.
The men, who have not yet begun practicing, will first set foot on a golf course during spring break in Los Angeles, Calif. They will practice at various golf clubs during the week.
The team's first tournament will be at Lou Flumere-Bentley College on Thursday, April 12.
"We have grown and matured as a team," said Jude Volek '03. "We're going to take the disappointment of last fall and make the spring that much better."