CALDWELL, Ida. – After taking on a pair of NCAA tournaments each, both Thunderbird golf teams are headed down to Caldwell, Idaho, together for the second of four Cascade Collegiate Conference events this season.
Running on Monday, October 13th and Tuesday, October 14th, the College of Idaho Invitational is followed by the Canada West Championship in Chilliwack the following week as the final tournaments in the fall portion of the season. The T-Birds will hope that the experience they've gathered through their first few outings this campaign will serve them well as they prepare for these couple of important tournaments.
The women's side has had some strong results, with a team and individual win at the opening CCC event in Walla Walla, and an impressive third-place finish at the NCAA DI Harbottle Invitational that featured an even more impressive medalist performance by
Sienna Harder.
"Some of our players that have come back have played quite strong," said UBC assistant coach Jeff Buder. "
Keira Hou had a great win in the first event and then Sienna played fantastic in Tacoma. That's a big advantage for us…the team's played surprisingly well with a much younger crew this year compared to the last couple years."
Along with the two talented sophomores, team captain
Jessica Ng has provided plenty of veteran leadership for a group that has successfully integrated a number of new players.
"It's just a matter of getting used to school and finding themselves a little bit, as far as blending playing golf as well as going to school, and that's a difficult transition" remarked Buder on the priorities for all the first-year athletes. "A lot of kids have a hard time adjusting to that, at least for the first year or two, but the younger crew that we have in have been fantastic."
The same goes for the men's side, who are just as young of a group and also won their first CCC tournament, while pulling a fourth-place finish at the NCAA DII WWU Invitational two weeks ago. Buder is very pleased with the level of camaraderie that is already growing within the squad, and credits players like
Forrest Van Alstine and
Jake Houston for helping strengthen the team's bond.
"The men so far are very solid…we've always had the advantage of having players that would bring the other players together, and that's the funny part of golf as a college sport – it's an individual sport per se, and you're playing it in a team format. So it's nice to have people like Forrest or Jake on the team as great glue guys who keep everyone involved.
"It's important to have great personalities on your teams…a lot of times, successful teams are ones that are a lot closer."
The competition at the College of Idaho Invitational will be strong, with teams like Lewis-Clark State and Oregon Tech eager to try to end UBC's CCC winning streak and take a conference tournament for their own.
With four possible championships to win over the course of the season – Canada West, CCC, NAIA and the Golf Canada Canadian University/College Championship – the Thunderbirds will want to keep steadily ramping up their level of play as the year goes along.
"If we can get through with a successful fall it will set us up for the spring," stated Buder. "With some of the newer players on the team, they're good players, so it's just a matter of us doing the right things and getting them prepared."
