After a strong regular season, the No. 37 ranked Ferris women’s golf team will compete for a conference championship this weekend.
The Bulldogs will travel to Augusta, Mich. to play in the GLIAC championships.
Last season during the tournament, Ferris fell to eventual winner Grand Valley State in the semi-finals but still advanced to the east regional.
In the east regional, they placed seventh and were one of seven GLIAC teams to make the regional.
weekend in Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Ferris Athletics
However, that is where their season ended, as it was not enough to advance to the postseason.
This year, the Bulldogs hope to change that around and make a deep run.
The Bulldogs return three golfers who competed in last year’s championships; they will use that experience to their advantage this year, according to coach Sam Stark.
“We have a couple of players who have been in these positions before,” Stark said. “That experience and even just our depth that we have will be a huge thing as we try to make a strong push in the postseason.”
Another advantage that the Bulldogs have within their team is the difficult schedule they play. Like many teams in the colder weather states, they must travel during the early season to schedule tournaments.
Not being able to play in the state provided some difficult schedules and tournaments. Even with these struggles, Ferris finished at least sixth or better in seven out of their ten tournaments.
This includes a victory in the Ohio Dominican NC4K classic. During the invitational, the Bulldogs won by 10 strokes and finished 32 over par as a team.
They acknowledge the tough schedule, but it was able to bring them closer together, says freshman Ashley Thomasma.
“The traveling can get tough at times but all of that time we spent together allowed us to grow together as a team and build up our relationship with each other,”
Thomasma said. “The tough schedule was really good for us I feel like, it strengthened us as a team and prepared us for conferences and hopefully regionals.”
This year, the Bulldogs are led by junior Kamryn Shannon, ranked as the 91st golfer in all of DII.Shannon has four top-10 finishes this year, including a first-place finish in the fall Bulldog Invitational.
Shannon is once again excited for the opportunity to win a conference championship after coming in fourth the year prior.
“We kinda feel like we have a lot to prove,” Shannon said. “We had a solid season of course but the job is never finished and we are always striving to do more. We set our goals at the beginning of the season and one of those was to win the conference.”
The Bulldogs are fresh off a fifth-place finish in the Missouri-St Louis spring invitational. This tournament featured four other top 50 teams in the nation, and Ferris put up a strong outing, with Shannon coming in seventh.
Shannon and junior Lizzie Anderson played well in the GLIAC championships in years prior. Shannon placed third overall in the 2024 championships, and Anderson placed 11th. With both eyeing similar or better play this year, they will attempt to lead Ferris to the East Regional.
Being ranked fourth in their region, it is safe to assume that Ferris will secure a spot in the regionals regardless of the outcome in the GLIAC championships, but it doesn’t take away the motivation, according to Stark.
“We still have our goals set and that doesn’t change,” Stark said. “We want to win the conference and make sure we advance.”
The GLIAC championships will take place Friday, April 25 to Sunday, April 27 at Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort, where the Bulldogs will look to claim their second GLIAC championship in the last three seasons.