Bradley women’s golf will resume its season on Monday, almost a month after its last meeting in Arizona.
This spring follows an impressive fall season, during which the team placed in the top four in four out of five events and won two.
“It’s a great thing to have on our resume as we move forward into the spring,” head coach Halley Morell said. “We’ve learned how to win. We’ve won twice this fall, so that’s a big thing, to have a great fall.”
The players put on a showing in the first five meets of the season, with junior Caroline McConnell and sophomore Jillian Cosler taking individual titles, having a team total of seventeen top-20 finishes. Great team performances have been overshadowed by results in their last two meets, finishing 15th and 16th respectively.
“Fall still wasn’t perfect, and [it] showed that we didn’t have to be perfect to still win and play well,” senior Maria Perakis said. “So, remembering the good things we did in the fall, carrying that into the spring and then working on the areas that we still need to work on, being confident that we still have a good basis coming into the spring.”
After their 16th-place finish in February, the team is looking towards their main stretch of meets leading into the MVC championships. As for what fans can look forward to, there’s a lot of excitement coming their way.
“We’re seeing some teams we haven’t seen before, [like] Florida, Illinois and Texas Tech, so we’re seeing some really big names,” Morell said. “I think just seeing how we stack up against some really good competition across the country will be something that we haven’t quite seen as much of in the past.”
“This is the most different spring lineup we’ve had, which I’m excited about,” Perakis said. “To see new teams, going to new places, just a different level of competition.”
In three days, the Braves will travel to Dade City, Fla., for the Spring Break Shootout hosted by Western Kentucky. When combining the level of competition at this event with a month’s worth of waiting, the team had plenty of time to prepare during practice.
“Obviously, down in Arizona, we didn’t play how we wanted to, but it was a good learning experience to figure out what we needed to work on for these couple weeks,” Morell said. “And I’ve seen them really work on the things we have to, and practice has gone really well.”
“At least for me personally, the first tournament out the gate was a little bit rough,” Perakis added. “There was some technical issues to work through, but we’ve had three weeks now to prepare for the second tournament and everybody’s been really motivated.”
