Men's golf coach Rob Powelson isn't shy about how his team stacks up to the competition.
"I don't think there is another Ivy League program that works as hard as we do in the offseason," Powelson said.
The Quakers are coming off an impressive fall season in which they came in second in the Big 5 Classic and came in second place in two other tournaments. They were the tenth-ranked team in the Mid-Atlantic region.
"After the fall season, I was really impressed with was the cohesion of the group, and obviously the results speak for themselves," said Powelson.
"They are really coming together and saying 'let's turn those second place finishes into some tournament victories and we'll control our destiny going into NCAA Regionals this year.'"
One of the strongest points of this year's team is its leadership, which starts with senior caption and two time All-Ivy Sean Barrett and junior co-captain Dean Merrill. The Quakers will look to count on not only captains Barrett and Merrill this season, but also sophomore Michael Blodgett, freshman Chance Pipitone and junior Nick Ryder. All of these players were contributors to the fall season and look to improve this coming season.
The one thing that Powelson thinks the team can work on to get them over the top this season is the short game.
"We've got to continue to improve and those improvements come . with our putting and chipping," said Powelson. "Being able to grind out rounds when you're dealing with adverse conditions really defines the spring season, so the little things are very important."
The young women's team has some work to do - the best it has ever finished is fifth. It is led by three freshmen: 2006 Atlanta Golfer of the Year Lisette Vitter, IJGT event winner Catherine Elliott and Meredith Kotowski, who all now have some collegiate experience under their belts.
Coach Francis Vaughn is not at all worried about the youth of his team. "Usually with youth comes inexperience, but not with this team," said Vaughn. "These young ladies have played pretty extensive junior golf careers. The exciting part is that they are very talented and they are where they are on the team because of how well they played."
There will be some changes, however, for the spring season as the squad will welcome back All-Ivy junior Meg Bender and senior Shara Venezia-Walerstein, who both studied abroad in the fall semester.
Vaughn seems confident that Bender will step into the number two spot and make big contributions to the team. So Vaughn will be forced to make decisions regarding who will be in the weekly five-woman rotation.
"My most difficult task for this season is coming up with who the starting five are," said Vaughn. "This is the first time since I have been coaching with the women that I have had that problem, and it is a nice problem to have."
