The women’s golf team will head into the inaugural Aloha Purdue Collegiate Invitational this Thanksgiving break after coming off an 11th place finish at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown. Head coach Angie Ravaioli-Larkin said the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, which featured four top-10 teams and four others in the top 25, had the strongest course the team has faced this season. Despite this adversity, the team finished 11th and didn’t play too poorly, she said.
“Even though we are never happy with 11th-place finishes, our scores were not indicative of an 11th-place finish,” Ravaioli-Larkin said. “It goes to show how strong women’s golf has gotten.”
Senior Catherine Matranga said since the last tournament wrapped up, each golfer has been qualifying for a trip to this week’s Hawaiian-based tournament.
After the completion of what Ravaioli-Larkin called “very intense qualifying rounds,” seniors Matranga, Stacey Bieber, Camellia Blackerby and Elin Emanuelsson will headline a squad that also includes freshman Ashley Watkins.
Ravaioli-Larkin said this is the same team that traveled to the season-opening Dick McGuire Invitational, which the coach called “by far our best tournament.”
Matranga said the familiarity the upperclassmen have with one another has played a pivotal role in the team’s early success.
“We have four seniors that know how to play together and that enjoy each other,” Matranga said.
Ravaioli-Larkin said she thought at first, with all the excess leadership, the team had “too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” That turned out not to be the case, as each player provides their own form of leadership, whether it is by actions or words, Ravaioli-Larkin said.
Although the team is unfamiliar with the tournament’s course and home island, Ravaioli-Larkin said she is not concerned. The team is focused solely on this tournament and not looking ahead to the three-month off season, she said.
“I haven’t even looked past this tournament,” Ravaioli-Larkin said. “To me, that would be kind of asking coach Patterson what his off season was going to be like heading into a bowl game.
