Both the men’s and women’s golf teams have enjoyed successful fall seasons, both being ranked within the top 50 in the country.
Now they prepare for an extensive spring portion of the season in preparation for conference and national tournaments.
Men’s
The men’s golf team is coming off a national tournament appearance where they finished eighth in the country.
This year, the Bulldogs have had success during the fall season. They finished top-three in their first three matches, including a first-place finish in the Midwest Regional preview in St. Joseph, Miss.
In the most recent three matches, they have finished no lower than 12th. This level of play has given them a national rank of 48 up to this point in the season.
With the winter behind them and being a northern team, junior Drayton Cleaver is happy with their play against some of the best southern teams.
“As a northern team, this is the most difficult part of the season since we can’t practice outdoors and have to travel a far ways away,” Cleaver said. “As a team though, we took care of business over the winter, improved our weaknesses and honed in our strengths.”
The travel will certainly get easier for Ferris in the coming weeks, only having to go as far as Indiana until the regional tournament.
Cleaver believes that the fall matches have made them grow as a team.
“We are in a super confident place right now,” Cleaver said. “We all have such a great bond with each other and the morale is at an all-time high.”
The Bulldogs have played stiff competition early in the season and the team has not shied away.
Sophomore McCoy Biagioli thinks this competition has primed them for another deep run in May.
“We’ve put ourselves against the best teams in the country and it shows us that we can compete with anybody when we have our best game,” Biagoli said. “As a group, we just have to continue to do the little things right and just grind it out. Our core group was able to learn a lot from last year’s postseason run and we are ready to do the same come May.”
Biagoli is coming off winning the GLIAC Freshman of the Year and has been the Bulldog’s No.1 golfer this season.
With only two events until the GLIAC championships, Ferris’s next match will be Monday, March 31 at the Findianapolis Intercollegiate in Laconia, Ind.
Women’s
The women’s golf team has also been successful this fall season, finishing at least top-10 in each of their matches, which is good enough to be ranked No. 36 in the national poll.
The women have also had to travel early in the season and have faced the challenges that come with it but have used that to become closer as a team says freshman Ashley Thomasma.
“Obviously we are not able to practice on an actual course as much as we would like to but being together all the time on the road has benefited us,” Thomasma said. “I love how we have played on the road and I think that the travel will help us down the road as we get ready for the postseason.”
Ferris’ strong fall season was powered by junior Kamryn Shannon who finished at the top of the Bulldogs’ leaderboard in five out of the six matches they partook in. Shannon’s strong start was led by a team-best score of 68 in the second round of the Gilda’s Club Laker Fall Invite on Oct. 6.
The Bulldogs are coming off of a season where they finished seventh in the east regional, and they are certainly looking to improve upon that come the postseason.
They have three more matches before the postseason, including a trip down to Missouri in April for the UMSL Spring Invitational. The women kicked off their spring season at UCSB Intercollegiate and now take on the Findianapolis Intercollegiate starting March 31.
The team likes how they have played up to this point, but Thomasma says that work is never finished.
“What we have done so far has been awesome,” Thomasma said. “We still have a lot of work to do if we want to make it far in the postseason, we are just trying to get better with each day and each match.”
Both teams have looked great up to this point, and both hold aspirations of making the national tournament.