April 12, 2009

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University's women's golf team believes it has some momentum heading into the West Coast Conference Championship Monday and Tuesday at Hiddenbrooke Golf Course in Vallejo, Calif.

Second-year head coach Brad Rickel is going with the same lineup he finished the regular season with last week, and that means the Bulldogs will tee of an even younger team that they did last year when the WCC Championship was held at Chambers Bay Golf Course in Tacoma, Wash.

Senior Elizabeth Jarrett will be joined by sophomores Sage Suffecool and Rachel Sibbitt, and freshmen Jessica Howe and Stephanie Corey.

But despite the youth, Rickel thinks this team better understands what is expected of him in year two.

"This team is much younger than last year. It's definitely younger and has been more successful throughout the year (than last year's team)," Rickel said. "We are eight or nine shots lower per round than we were last year. I feel this is a better program in a better spot than we were even though we are younger."

The transition to year two has been a lot easier, both for Rickel and for his players.

"The team understands the brand of golf I want us to play, smart but aggressive. I like to call it aggressively smart. We're doing everything the same every day - we prepare the same, we warm up the same - and they understand that. The external stresses and pressures from a year ago are gone. And they know they should expect more of themselves," Rickel said. "I think we're a little more prepared emotionally that last year."

Although young, three members of this year's team played in the WCC Championship a year ago. Sibbitt tied for 11th, Suffecool was 19th and Jarrett was 24th. The Bulldogs had a solid final tune-up last week in the Cowgirl Classic in Chandler, Ariz., finishing tied for fourth. Suffecool and Howe tied for 11th, while Corey tied for 17th.

Howe, from Poway, Calif., had the best spring among the Bulldogs, averaging 77.0 strokes/round for the spring after a 77.2 in the fall. Corey, who hails from Burien, Wash., had a solid 76.8 stroke average in the fall in her collegiate debut, saw that go up to 78.9 in the spring season and enters the tournament with a 77.8 average.

Sibbitt, from Mill Valley Calif., which is only about 35 miles from Vallejo and this year's tournament site, and Suffecool, from Tucson, Ariz., each showed marked improvement from their freshmen campaigns of a year ago.

Sibbitt finished the season with an 80.5 stroke average and has taken more than a stroke off that this season and enters this year's tournament with a 79.1 stroke average.

Suffecool had an 80.7 stroke average last season but takes a 79.8 this season into the tourney when she tees off Monday. Jarrett, who cracked this year's lineup for the final two tournaments of the spring season, had a career-best finish at the 36-hole NIU Snowbird Intercollegiate in Tampa, Fla., when she tied for 12th. She brings an 82.8 stroke average into the WCC Championship after being at 85.0 last season.

"Any of them have shown they can be our best player that week," Rickel said. "Lately, Sage and Corey have shown the ability to score low, but Howe can be our best on any given day."

Rickel said the par 72 Hiddenbrooke course will be every bit as challenging as last year's Chambers Bay Golf Course. Hiddenbrooke GC hosted the Samsung World Championship from 2000-02. The tourney is an invitation-only tournament that began in 1980 with a field of 12 of the best players on the LPGA Tour. The field was increased to 16 in 1996 and to the current size of 20 in 1999.

"It tends to be windy, and can be cold and rainy, but it's a tough course," Rickel said.

Temperatures are expected to be in the mid to high 60s both days with a 20 percent or less chance of precipitation.