After tying for sixth at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last April, the Bradley women’s golf team will tee off the season this Sunday.
Like many other Bradley sports, the team did not get to have a fall season last year, so head coach Halley Morell is looking forward to competing once again this month.
“I’m excited to play this fall,” Morell said. “[I’m excited] to get to play in some good weather, kind of start the season in a ‘normal’ way, and play in some really fun events that we’re looking forward to.”
Even when the team did get to play, Morell believes a lot of their struggles were a result of COVID-19 protocols and hopes the laxed rules will help improve the team’s harmony.
“It was difficult to kind of find a rhythm, find some team chemistry because of all the protocols,” Morell said. “We’ve already done some team bonding stuff this fall [and] really trying to work on getting some good team chemistry.”
This year’s team will look a little different, however, as five-time All-MVC honoree Taylor Ledwein is no longer a part of it. Last season’s MVC Golfer of the Year graduated this past spring, leaving behind a slew of awards and accolades.
Morell thinks there’s one golfer in particular who can stand out and be the next Ledwein.
“Mara [Flaherty] is playing really well right now in qualifying,” Morell said about the junior. “She’s going to play our number one spot in the first tournament so hopefully she can keep up the good play and hopefully fill that role. [Ledwein] probably is going to go down as the best or second-best player in the history of our program. But, we’ve got two new freshmen coming in that are ready to play and the team is ready to step up.”
Flaherty, the only Brave to play in every tournament over the past two seasons, ranked fourth on the team with a 79.57 stroke average last season and her 78.68 career stroke average ranks 10th in Bradley history.
Those two aforementioned freshmen are Kathryn McNease and Maria Perakis. McNease, from San Antonio, Texas, finished third in her district championship as a senior in high school and tied for third at the Taylormade Junior Optimist Qualifier in 2021.
Perakis, from Glenview, Illinois, qualified for the Illinois state championship each of her first three prep seasons in high school, finishing second as a junior and also shooting a personal-best 69 to win the 2019 IJGA-CDGA Junior Amateur.
In addition to the newcomers, the Braves also welcome returning seniors Elyse Emerzian, Sarah Nacos and Megan Welch, all of whom Morell anticipates will be important if the team wants to keep the momentum going from last season.
“Just having that senior leadership again come back and be in the lineup [is so important],” Morell said. “Also with some fresh new faces as freshmen to kind of build off that good play coming off of the spring.”
There’s still much to be improved upon though, according to Morell, but she likes what she’s been seeing during the team’s practices.
“Some of the weaknesses that we saw in the spring at the conference tournament [were] our short games and some wedge play. [We’ve] been working on that really hard since we started practice and hopefully, we can put that practice into our events coming up,” Morell said.
The Braves’ season starts up Sunday morning at the Redbird Invitational at Illinois State.
Your writing is so smooth and readable. Now, with your help, I will get to learn more about golf (I know nothing). Looking forward to the next column.