BY Jack Ravitz
Staff Reporter
The Sacred Heart University women’s golf team begins their spring season in Kiawah Island, SC, on Feb. 24, for their first tournament.
Head coach Matthew McGreevy, is looking for the team to improve from their fall season, which ended at the SHU Fall Invite on Oct. 22.
“The fall season was a learning process,” said McGreevy. “We are a relatively young team and we used the fall to find our footing and identify our strengths and weaknesses.”
The team consists of seven golfers and three of them are underclassmen, two freshmen and one sophomore. Senior and captain Chelsea Sedlar, earned All-NEC First Team honors for her performance during the fall. Her focus in the spring is to motivate the rest of her teammates.
“We have used this offseason to evaluate our results from the fall,” said Sedlar. “There are things we as individuals need to work on and we have to reevaluate our swing and our mental attitude. We are all looking forward to attacking the spring season and giving it our all.”
McGreevy is hoping that the team helps out Sedlar in finishing her career at Sacred Heart on a high note.
“She [Sedlar] has never finished outside of the Top-3 at the conference tournament, winning her freshman year and losing in a playoff her sophomore year,” said McGreevy.
Along with Sedlar, the team will look to junior Ana Contreras to help lead the team. Contreras has focused on instilling a positive vibe for the team throughout the season.
“I’m excited to see where this team is going,” said Contreras. “We were all working hard during the offseason with the main goal to prepare for the conference tournament.”
McGreevy has stressed the importance of not trying to do too much to his team for the season.
“He tells us, ‘Give it your all,’” said Sedlar. “He reminds us to put our bad rounds in the back of our minds and focus on the bigger picture. Conference play is where we make a stand and show the rest of the teams that we want the title,” said Sedlar.
By following this message every day, McGreevy believes the team’s scores in tournaments will improve, which will also lead to individual performances raising as well.
“I truly believe everyone can improve their scoring average and tighten up some things that will make our spring very competitive,” said McGreevy.
When it comes to picking who goes out and competes for the team in the first tournament, McGreevy likes to go with the hot hand from the fall in the hopes of carrying some of that momentum over.
“We use our spring trip in Florida to evaluate everyone and set the baseline for the rest of the spring season,” said McGreevy.
The Edwin Watts/Kiawah Classic goes on for three days, until Feb. 26. Sacred Heart will face teams such as The Savannah College of Art and Design, Butler University, Quinnipiac University and Western Carolina University.