Head Coach: Brett Muller (15th season)
2024-25 GPAC Finish: 7th (332-329-343–1,004)
Key Returners: Emery Custer; Maddie Lewis; Savannah McFalls; Audra Poffinbarger.
Key Losses: Jennifer Gillotti; Sarah Wilson.
2024-25 GPAC All-Conference: Emery Custer (First Team).
Outlook
The 2024-25 season ended in encouraging fashion for Concordia University, Nebraska Women’s Golf as the Bulldogs saved their best for last. Their two lowest rounds of the entire campaign came at the 2025 GPAC Championships held in Cairo, Neb., where then junior Emery Custer made a push for an individual conference title. Head Coach Brett Muller’s squad wound up in seventh place in the conference, a feat the program hopes it can build upon looking ahead to 2025-26.
This will be year 15 for Muller at the helm of the men’s and women’s golf programs. Under Muller’s direction, the Concordia women have placed as high as third in the GPAC and have had at least one individual finisher place in the top 10 in 11 of the past 14 years. Custer and company are coming into this season with increased confidence.
“To wrap up our season last spring, our women performed the best they have all year,” Muller said. “That was great to see for them. All their hard work definitely paid off. They improved a lot throughout the year. It was kind of a disappointing year and an up-and-down year at times, but we played pretty well at the conference championships. That was a nice reward for them.”
Each of the team’s top three golfers from last season return to the lineup this fall: the senior Custer along with fellow senior Maddie Lewis and sophomore Savannah McFalls. They were instrumental in the Bulldogs carding a team score of 329 in round two of the GPAC Championships, marking a season best and the lowest one-round team score for the program since April of 2021. From the roster that contributed to that achievement, Concordia graduated only Jennifer Gillotti and Sarah Wilson.
A native of Broken Bow, Neb., Custer broke through as a junior with three sub-80 rounds, including two that occurred at the GPAC Championships. Custer placed fifth in the GPAC (80-77-79–236) and enters her senior year dreaming of big things, like winning the GPAC title. It’s a feat accomplished by just one Bulldog in history, Amy Ahlers in 2016-17. Beyond her exploits on the course, Custer stands out as a leader on the team.
“Emery had a great GPAC championship last year,” Muller said. “She’s a very competitive person. She came from a very successful high school program where she won multiple state championships as a team. She does a great job of being one of our leaders on the team, both with her performance and her leadership. She’s always pushing the girls to get the most out of their rounds and doing anything she can to help the team.”
Custer stood only two strokes out of first place heading into the final round of last season’s conference championships. Now she knows she belongs with the best in the GPAC. Said Custer, “It’s given me a lot of confidence because I know that I can shoot low, and I can do it in a big setting when all the pressure is on me. It makes me feel like I belong at the top. My coaches have been saying that, but I didn’t really believe it until I saw myself at the top.”
Custer (82.1), Lewis (87.3) and McFalls (89.9) each turned in 2024-25 season averages below 90. Lewis (27th) and McFalls (T-28th) cracked the top 30 of the final 2025 GPAC leaderboard and have reason to believe they can climb the ladder in 2026. A former member of the Concordia volleyball team, Lewis has 36 rounds of collegiate tournament action under her belt with a career low of 81 coming in September 2023. Meanwhile, McFalls twice shot an 84 during her freshman season.
In adding depth, sophomore Audra Poffinbarger also returns. She shot two separate rounds of 93 at the GPAC Championships. Others on the roster who possess college experience are juniors Abigail Kollbaum and Emma McCoy and sophomore Makenzie Hughes.
The roster includes four newcomers with one being transfer Kaylee Carlson, who spent one year at Mid-Plains Community College. The three freshmen are Brielle Cook, Olivia James and Amelia Ptacnik. A Holdrege High School alum, Ptacnik placed ninth at the state tournament as a senior.
The early returns are promising. As Muller said, “We had a pretty good day (on Aug. 18). We had multiple returners and newcomers shoot their best scores in qualifying or in competition. I definitely look for them to take a step forward as well.”
Custer has glowing remarks of her own in stating, “I absolutely love our new freshmen and our one transfer. We’ve seen great scores already, so I’m very excited for this year. We’ve put up some of our best numbers in qualifying compared to previous years. I’m really looking forward to it. We recruited well this year.”
The qualifying rounds this preseason began soon after both Concordia golf teams reported to campus on Aug. 14. The 2025-26 season will officially get started with the Mount Marty Invite (Aug. 28-29) next week. There are five events on the fall semester slate, which can be found HERE. The 2026 GPAC Championships are slated to take place at Centura Hills Golf Club with the dates to be announced.
By that point, the Bulldogs hope to be playing their best golf. Says Custer, “We shot our best score last year at GPAC. We’ve beaten that in qualifying all three days so far. We should be top five at least in every meet, if not top three. Doing well at those championships made girls look at us a little more seriously and showed that we do have a good program.”