BY Josef Samilenko
Staff Reporter
The Sacred Heart University women’s golf team has gone through the bulk of their fall season. What sits ahead is their last event, the SHU Fall Classic, where they will host rather than travel.
The event will take place from Oct. 21-22, at the Great River Golf Club in Milford, Conn.
The par-72 course boasts its ranking as, “One of America’s Top 100 Golf Courses in the US,” according to Golf Digest Magazine.
“We are looking for a complete effort from the team and walking out of the fall season on a positive note,” said head coach Matthew McGreevy, who is in his 13th season with the team.
The season up to this point has consisted of four events. The team opened their season by competing at the Dartmouth Invitational in Hanover, N.H., from Sept. 15-16, finishing 12th out of 15 teams.
After that, they competed at the Boston College Invitational in Canton, Mass. That event went from Sept. 24-25, and the team placed 15th out of 17 teams.
Four days later, they competed at the Hartford Invite in Bloomfield, Conn. There, they came in 4th out of 8 teams.
Their last competition was over Columbus Break at the Yale Women’s Invite in New Haven, Conn. They came in 15th out of 17 teams.
Senior Chelsea Sedlar is one of two golfers (the other being freshman Hana Bowman), who has played in all four events this season. She posted the best score for Sacred Heart at the Boston College and Yale events.
According to the Sacred Heart athletics website, Sedlar finished in a tie for 44th individually out of 89 competitors at the Boston Invite. She finished with 237 points, going 21-over-par (+21).
At the Yale Invite, she finished in a tie for 38th out of 95 competitors. She finished with 233 points, going +20.
“Having played in the fall, we now have a better understanding of our team dynamic and are really starting to come together,” said Sedlar.
Sedlar saw her best score at the team’s first tournament, the Dartmouth Invitational, where she posted a +9, tying for 28th out of 85 participants. Her best individual placement came at the Hartford Fall Invitational, where her +16 score netted her for 8th place overall.
“We shot lower numbers than in previous events so we really started to mesh as a team,” said Sedlar.
Sedlar has been selected to the All Northeast Conference (NEC) First-Team throughout her first three years at Sacred Heart.
In the past two years, she has placed high at the SHU Fall Classic. In 2017-18, she placed 3rd in the event. In 2016-17, she tied for runner-up.
“We want to show what we can do, and our home course is a great place for us to do that,” said Sedlar. “We have the advantage of playing here every day and hope to use that advantage to poll better scores.”
Despite a season that has not produced any victories for the team, they are looking forward rather than reflecting on the past.
“We are a young team and are still finding our footing,” said McGreevy. “There is a lot of upside and we are looking forward to our final event this fall and getting better in the offseason.”
