Who do you have returning to the CGD Girls golf squad?
We graduated 8 seniors last year and only return 1 player off last year's team, Sawyer Morrical. Sawyer is a junior and is a very solid player. She brings a lot of talent and leadership to the team and has even been helping some of the new players in practice with their swings and things to work on. We have some big goals for Sawyer and I know she possesses the talent and mental toughness to not only lead this team but compete to win meets this year. Aysa Lyons (Junior), Sydney Friesleben (Junior), and Jordyce Duncalf (Sophomore) join the varsity this year after a great year last year learning and improving on the JV Squad.
What are the team goals?
We have a relatively young team with 4 Juniors, 1 sophomore and 2 freshmen. A majority of these girls are fairly new to the sport, and we are so glad and thankful that they are out. Our main goal for the year is to show steady improvement in all facets of the game. We have put a lot of time into ball striking so far and working on becoming more consistent off the tee. As the year goes on the focus will shift to short game and working on bringing scores down. With a young an inexperienced team we are looking to make steady improvements. Individually we have a few girls that should be able to make a push at competing at an all-conference level with the goal of making it to the state tournament.
What can CGD Nation expect ?
This team is a lot of fun to coach. They get along extremely well and have a desire to learn and improve. We are going to go through some growing pains to start the year but I am expecting to see consistent improvement throughout the year. Last year we were able to reduce our team score by approximate 35 shorts from our first meet to our last meet and I believe this year the improvement will be even larger. We also have some players that are good enough to win meets early on and be very competitive in the conference.
How do you see the NCC shaping up?
The North Central Conference will again be very talented. Clear Lake is likely to be the conference favorites led by the DeLong Sisters. Humboldt had a really solid team last year and I expect them to be near the top again this year. The rest of the conference has a lot of solid players and the conference as a whole will be great preparation for getting into tournament play at the end of the year.
Please tell us about any up-and-coming players?
With a team so young I consider most of the team to still be up and coming so I will mention a little about all of them. Sawyer Morrical played varsity last year but is looking to really leave a mark this year. She has a lot of talent and is an extremely good ball striker. We will be spending a lot of time on the putting green this year and I fully believe she will be competing to win a lot of meets this year. Sydney Freisleben is another junior with a lot of promise. She hits the ball extremely far and we are just looking to add some consistency to her game. Freshman Claire Kirstein has shown a lot of promise early on. She has a really solid compact swing and I am really looking forward to working with her this season. Aysa Lyons is a returning junior and is very unique in golf in that her backswing is extremely solid and one of the best on the team. We are working hard on the consistency of her downswing and her mental game and expect her to be very important in the team's success this year. Jordyce Duncalf brings the mental game that I wish every player could copy. She stays extremely positive no matter what happens, and her swing is progressing really well for a sophomore who is newer to the game. Paige Brooks and Teagan Webb are both new to the team this year. Paige is a Junior and is knocking the rust off and showing a lot of improvement here in just a few short weeks of practice. Teagan is extremely new to the game and is doing a really good job of working on the basics of the game. I am very excited about the future of this team and the talent that is possess that we just have to work to unlock and build consistency around it. I am extremely excited to watch the scores get lower and lower as the year goes on.
