VERMILLION, S.D. – The usual suspects Kendra Placke and Murphy Sears led the way while the rest of the Concordia University women’s golf team rose to the occasion on Monday (Sept. 30) at the fall portion of the 2019-20 GPAC Championships. Due to the threat of inclement weather on Tuesday, 36 holes of conference action were packed into one day at The Bluffs Golf Course in Vermillion, S.D. The Bulldogs turned in a team total of 336-345–681 to position themselves in third place in the GPAC standings.
A top three finish in the conference would represent a significant leap forward from the program’s seventh-place claim in 2018-19. Concordia stood in sixth place at this time a year ago.
“I thought we had a great mindset coming in,” Muller said. “It’s a course that sets up pretty well for us. Four of the five girls played here last year and played well. We got off to a great start in the first 18. We didn’t get off to the best start in the second 18, but we finished the day fairly strong.”
Placke entered this season with a realistic shot of competing for an individual GPAC title. She will have work to do in the spring if she’s to reach the top of the leaderboard, but Placke shot well enough (78-84–162) to put herself in sixth place. The senior Sears is seven strokes behind her at 83-86–169 (tied for 14th place). Both Placke and Sears earned all-conference recognition last season.
In order to challenge for top-three team placement, the Bulldogs needed continued improvement from the rest of the lineup. They got that on Monday. Junior Andrea Peterson, sophomore Britney Jepsen and freshman Lauren Havlat each carded a personal best round at The Bluffs. The overall totals were 83-89–172 (T-18th) for Peterson, 92-86–178 (T-26th) for Jepsen and 94-89–183 (T-39th) for Havlat.
“To have all five girls break 90 in that second 18 was huge for us,” Muller said. “Not counting any scores in the 90 took some pressure off Kendra and Murphy. They didn’t play as well in that second 18, but our team score didn’t shoot up like it has in the past if we didn’t play as well in the one and two spots. A lot of girls played well and added depth to the back half of our lineup.”
It will be a major challenge for anyone to catch Morningside at the top of the standings, but second place is within Concordia’s reach. It trails Briar Cliff (338-335–673) by eight strokes entering the spring.
The fall season is now in the books for Bulldog women’s golf. They will pick things back up in 2020 encouraged by their play on Monday. The entire spring schedule is not yet finalized, but the dates for the next GPAC rounds are April 24-25 at Bent Tree Golf Club in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Says Muller, “There’s a pretty big grouping in that next tier and we want to finish strong and put ourselves in position to finish second in the conference.”