Sports
Golf flying high during spring season
The Pointer
rnech142@uwsp.edu
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point women’s golf team finished strong in a pair of Minnesota tournaments in the past two weeks.
A first place finish at the Carleton Spring Invite and a second place finish at the St. Thomas Invitational in Becker, Minn. exhibited a strong golf team as the Pointers get ever closer to the NCAA Division III women’s golf tournament.
“The last two events have had good fields with four teams ranked in the top 12 and seven ranked in the top 20,” coach Matt Interbartolo said. “It is a major confidence boost for our team to win and compete with some of the best in the business.”
The top finishes in the past few tournaments promise great things to come in the national tournament, but Interbartolo and the team know there are still plenty of details to attend to.
“I believe we have had a very high level of success the past couple of tournaments, but we realize that we have a lot more work to do to be successful in the middle of May after the NCAA tournament,” Pointer Jessica Urban said.
Urban has been a highly successful element of the team this spring. She placed second in the Carlton Invitational with a tournament-low 76 on day one and an 81-point day to cap the tournament. At the St. Thomas Invite, she shot a 73 in day two for third place.
Countrywide, Urban is number one with a 77.97 scoring average and the UW-SP team sits at first with an 80.83 average score and an 86.73 average drop score. Sophomore Michelle Pascavis is also at the top of the national list at number five. She finished fifteenth at the St. Thomas Invite with +15 and took eleventh place in Carleton.
Interbartolo remarked he is pleased by senior Amanda Dlugopolski’s performance this season. He said she has been pulling through when the team needs her in tough spots.
The Pointers travel once more before heading to Florida for the national tournament, but Urban said there is a lot of work still to be done. In the next month of practice, the team will work hard to prepare themselves for the four-day competition May 13 through May 16.
“[The team will] just fix any swing changes that need to be made, try out new shots to make ourselves more comfortable trying them when we get to nationals,” Urban said. “And working on building our confidence through all shots and other things that happen on the course.”
The Pointers travel to the Eau Claire Spring Invite at the Wild Ridge Golf Club May 2 and May 3 for the final regular season tournament. They then head to Port St. Lucie, Fla. for the NCAA Division III tournament May 13 through 16.
“We need to continue to take care of the ball and minimize our mistakes,” Interbartolo said. “We are setting our goals very high for this tournament to put the utmost amount of pressure on our game to adequately be ready for the four grueling days we face coming up in mid-May.”
