Women Linksters Continue to Build

The rebuilding year.

It's a part of virtually every sport: baseball, basketball, football, hockey--and even golf. For the Harvard women's golf team, however, it goes beyond rebuilding to the start of a new program. Women's golf continues to lay the foundations for this program as the Crimson completes its inaugural season as a varsity sport.

Last weekend's slot on the schedule brought the team to the Northeast Championships held at Amherst. Princeton led the nine-team field with a total of 335 strokes. Harvard shot 382 in the first round and followed it up with 360 strokes in the second to finish seventh overall in 742.

"I think a lot of us went into [the tournament] thinking that we'd do a little better than we did," freshman Alexis Boyle said. "Everyone was playing well in practice last week, but we didn't play as well as we thought we could have. We have the potential to be in contention in these tournaments and, hopefully, we'll have a little better turnout next week."

Freshman Megan Murray finished first for Harvard in 179 strokes, shooting 89 on the first day and following it up with a 90. Boyle came in one stroke back, posting a 91 in the first round an 89 in the second.

"I think we played a lot better," junior Emilie Kao said. "I think this is the best run we've had all year. We're a much more cohesive team now than we were at the beginning of this year."

Junior Rosie Stovell was third for the Crimson with a 98 in the first round before coming back with a team low 85 on the par 74 course in the second.

Senior captain Christine Sadlowski placed fourth for the Harvard in 200 strokes (104-96). Kao finished fifth for the Crimson with 105-99-204.

"We played reasonably well," Sadlowski said. "We had hoped to beat a couple of other teams and we didn't A couple of us just didn't have good days."

Harvard's next competition is the Boston College Invitational held at New Seabury Country Club May 1-2.

"We're a young team," Assistant Coach Warren Smith said. "It has been a varsity sport for just a year, so it's a building process. We're much stronger than we were last spring. Hopefully, we'll be able to contend soon and do something with this young team."