Women's Golf Reflects on Highly Successful Year
5/29/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
The 2011-12 academic year for the Seton Hall women's golf team was a year of firsts that saw unprecedented success that far exceeded expectations for a second-year program.
After just nine all-time tournaments the year prior, Seton Hall moved up the GolfStat rankings, placed fourth in the BIG EAST Championship and received its first team and individual championships this year.
"This was an incredible year of growth for our golf program," said Head Coach Sara Doell. "We accomplished so many wonderful achievements and proved that we can perform with the teams in the BIG EAST. I am proud of the success we had - from Hannah's individual win, to the overall individual performances, to our first team win and our much lower scoring average, we made great strides. What I am most proud of is the fashion in which we accomplished these things. We represented the Pirate in a very positive light and did so with class and humility"
Seton Hall saw a vast improvement from the start. Despite adverse weather conditions the Pirates placed third in the 15-team field at the Bucknell Invitational, its best team finish in the program's young history and its first top-five showing. Seton Hall was paced by sophomore Hannah Basalone (Brea, Calif.), who tied for seventh place among all individual golfers with a 15-over-par, 75-76-74-225.
"A third place finish was really significant for us," Doell said. "The course was very wet and played really long. For us to stick together the way we did and show some real consistency throughout the tournament truly speaks to just how far we've come in a very short period of time."
Despite a significantly more challenging tournament, the following weekend Seton Hall put together its second straight strong performance to begin the 2011 fall season. The Pirates finished in eighth place in the 16-team field at the Yale Women's Intercollegiate, with a 79-over-par, 318-311-314-943. Seton Hall finished 49 strokes behind the team champion, Harvard, but was only eight shots away from finishing in the top-5.
"I was really pleased with our performance there this year," Doell said. "The tournament represented a major step-up in competition and we didn't wilt under the pressure. An eighth place finish in this event shows that we were clearly headed in the right direction as a program."
That direction was point up as the Pirates notched their third straight top-10 finish to begin the 2011 fall at the Princeton Women's Invitational, Sept. 24-25. Sophomore Christina Cantú (Houston, Texas) fired a third round 74 to pace Seton Hall to a seventh place finish. The Pirates had only one top-10 finish in tournaments with fields larger than 10 teams in all of last year.
"I know they were tired, but I'm really proud with how they stuck it out and fought to the finish," Doell said. "We finished dead last in this tournament last year, so to place seventh in this tough field, spoke volumes of how far we'd come."
After three weeks off, the Pirates returned to action at the Rutgers Women's Invitational and were guided by Basalone, who finished at 9-over-par to lead Seton Hall to a fourth place team finish.
"Conditions that weekend were challenging with up to 30 mile per hour winds," Doell said. "The team did a great job of staying focused and patient all weekend."
Basalone led the Pirates with a 9-over-par, 315-322-637, to tie for fourth place among 98 individual competitors, the highest finish in her collegiate career. Basalone finished just three strokes behind the individual champion, Kortnie Maxoutopouli of Rutgers.
For Basalone, her best golf was yet to come and culminated the following weekend at the fall season-ending Lehigh University Invitational. Basalone edged Brown's Stephanie Hsieh in a playoff to win the event, becoming the first-ever individual champion in the history of the Seton Hall women's golf program. As a team, the Pirates finished second, their best-ever finish.
Basalone fired a 3-over-par, 73-74-147, to tie Hsieh. In the first hole of the playoff, in front of a large crowd which included the Seton Hall men's golf team, she edged her competitor with a birdie compared to Hsieh's par. A celebration ensued which included a "Gatorade bath" by her fellow Seton Hall student-athletes. A "bath" similar to the one received by Seton Hall men's golfer Brandon Park earlier in the day, who also won the Lehigh Invitational individual crown.
"I am so proud of Hannah," Doell said. "She fought so hard. For her to tie and enter the playoff which such composure and poise really shows her maturity. Such maturity is usually reserved for a junior or senior, but Hannah has grown so much. She deserved it."
After a historic individual achievement closed the fall season, an equally history team achievement opened the spring season. Playing in only the 15th tournament since the program's inception, the Seton Hall women's golf team won its first-ever team title. The Pirates won the Homewood Suites Siena Invitational by an impressive 32 strokes over second place Indianapolis.
Collectively, Seton Hall fired a 22-over-par, 310, in the event's final round and finishes with a 39-over-par, 305-310-615. Indianapolis finished at 71-over-par, while Rutgers, the Pirates' only BIG EAST competition, finished in third at 72-over-par.
"I am really proud of how we finished the tournament," Doell said. "We entered the final round with a large lead, but we didn't relent and earned the first tournament title in school history. We've grown so much as a program in such a short period of time. I'm incredibly happy for these very deserving young ladies."
Fresh off their first-ever team title, the Pirates played well at the competitive University of Cincinnati Spring Invitational. Basalone fired a 1-under-par, 71, in the third and final round to guide the team to a ninth place tie among a field of 19 teams.
Basalone's 71 was the lowest round for a Seton Hall competitor at the three-day event and enabled her to climb from a 64th place tie following round one to a 29th place finish. She completed play with a 16-over-par, 81-80-71-232.
On April 3, Seton Hall women's golf team shot a 31-over-par, 319, in the final round of the 2012 Hoya Women's Invitational to finish in ninth place overall at The Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Md.
Cantύ fired the low round of the tournament for Seton Hall on the final day of competition, posting a one-over-par 73 to lead the Pirates and finish in a tie for 16th place individually with a three-round tally of 241. She moved up 23 spots in the third round, entering the day in a tie for 39th place.
In the last tune up of the 2012 spring before the BIG EAST Championship, Cantύ fired a four-over-par, 76, in the final round to lead the Seton Hall women's golf team to a fourth place finish at the 2012 Columbia Roar-ee Invitational. Cantύ had a strong tournament for the Pirates, finish in a sixth place tie among 75 individual golfers. The Texas native completed play with a 7-over-par, 75-76-151.
One week later, the Seton Hall women's golf team counted four, 6-over-par, 78, scores in the third and final round of the 2012 BIG EAST Championship as the Pirates finished fourth among the eight-team field in the conference's marquee event.
Collectively, the Pirates saved their best round for last as they shot a 24-over-par, 312, in round three. Seton Hall finished 33 strokes behind the team champion, USF, which edged Notre Dame by one stroke to win the team title.
The fourth place finish is a monumental step in the right direction for the Pirates, who finished in last place at the BIG EAST Championship a year ago. In 2011, Seton Hall finished 172 strokes over par and 69 strokes behind seventh place Cincinnati. This season, the Pirates finished just 79 strokes over par and 13 strokes in front of fifth place Rutgers.
"I'm so incredibly proud of what we've been able to accomplish this year," Doell said. "Our stroke averages came way down, our Golfstat ranking improved and we won our first tournament. Now, to place in the top half of the BIG EAST leader board in only our second year of existence is really a testament to our progress."
For the 2011-12 academic year, Seton Hall's team stroke average per round was 313.15, an improvement of more than 27 strokes over their 2010-11 average. The Pirates were an average of 67.80 strokes over par per tournament last year, compared to 161.50 in 2010-11.
Furthermore, after just one top-10 finish in tournaments with fields larger than 10 teams in their first year, the Pirates had eight top-10 finishes in 2011-12, and their only other two tournaments had eight-team fields, of which they finished in second and fourth place respectively.
Much of the Pirates' success was due to the strong play of sophomore Hannah Basalone. The Brea, California native became the program's first All-BIG EAST Team member and was named Seton Hall's Sophomore Female Athlete of the Year. At the Pirates' season-ending banquet, she received the Team Pirates Award, given to the athlete with outstanding leadership and dedication in the classroom and on the golf course.
"Hannah was steady all season long," Doell said. "She is the type of player that every coach hopes to have the chance to lead through a collegiate career. Hannah has silent confidence, solid composure and a strong sense of Humility. Pair that with the incredible amount of talent that she has and you have the model of what a student-athlete should be. She works just as hard in the classroom as she does on the golf course and it shows."
Another award winner at women's golf's season-ending banquet was freshman Erin McClure (Tucson, Ariz). She received the Most Improved Award.
"Erin came back from the Winter break and it was as if she was a new person," Doell said. "She was more confident, patient and ready to compete. She showed much more composure, self awareness and emotional maturity in competition. Her golf swing was more compact, she had much better tempo and finished balanced- all areas that we worked on throughout the fall. She improved her scoring average by a shot, her putting average by a stroke and her up-and-down percentage went from 27% to 39%. She is a very coachable athlete, which is a large part of why she made such great improvements from fall to Spring."
With so much success in only the Pirates' second season in existence, Doell likes the future of the program.
"I am genuinely excited about the potential that this team has," Doell said. "We are adding two freshman to the roster next year, Karlie Zabrowsky (Erie, PA) and Megan Tenhundfeld (Loveland, OH). We will keep the same ten players for two years before our inaugural freshman class graduates in 2014. The consistency of the roster will help us to continue to build a strong and close knit team over the next two seasons. I believe that with the addition of these two freshman paired with the returning players, we have the potential to do great things."
Among the many goals that Coach Doell has for the Pirates next year, is cracking the 300 stroke barrier in a round. Seton Hall came close this year and is poised to break through next year.
"We have begun a team initiative called "Vision 299" for the next year," Doell said. "I believe that we are capable of breaking 300 as a team in the next season, as we shot 304 twice last year. To do that, we've discussed that each member of the team needs to take care of business individually. They need to take care of themselves in all areas including emotional, physical, mental and technical aspects. We defined what each individual player can do in each area to improve which will, in turn, create overall team progress."
