The mission of Ohio Athletics is “to inspire, develop and support students in their pursuit of academic and athletic excellence.” The women’s golf team has already completed the first half of that goal.
The Bobcats led all Division I golf teams last year with a 3.834 cumulative grade point average. Ohio will try to accomplish the rest of the mission statement when it makes its first-ever trip to Normal, Ill., for the 2011 Redbird Invitational Saturday.
Though the Bobcats are not sure what to expect, several familiar foes in the Mid-American Conference are among the competition, including Toledo and Bowling Green.
“This will be a good test to see where all the other teams are as far as bringing in recruiting classes and seeing who is going to be participating for them this year,” coach Kelly Ovington said.
The fall season also is a good transition for the players and coach to see what elements of their game needs to be addressed before the competitive spring season begins.
“We’re trying to work on things for individual games a lot this season,” Ovington said. “I’m looking at each individual player and saying what we need to do to move her into the right position to be scoring better.”
Seniors Meryl and Megan Weaver helped contribute to a seventh-place finish at the MAC Championships last spring. They, along with junior Sarah Tranelli, return to bolster the lineup for the Bobcats.
But even with the loss of departed seniors Erin Cahill and Jordan Fesh, Ovington is not lowering the bar for this core of Bobcats, which includes three freshmen.
“I’m expecting some good things from this team,” she said. “We came off a very successful campaign last year, and we lost two seniors, but we still have a core group of players that will definitely contribute.”
Ovington has two goals for the Bobcats this fall: win a tournament as a team and have a player win an individual title.
“I think those are very legitimate goals,” she said. “I think we can reach those.”
mk277809@ohiou.edu
