Callie Riley (left) and Erica Bodnar and hope to walk away with some wins in 2005.
With a year of varsity experience under their belt, the players on the Wittenberg Univerity women's golf team have formed a cohesive unit that is making strides toward bigger and better things in the very near future.
The 2004-05 team lost its heart and soul in Erin Mowery, the top scorer in every event in 2003-04, but there are players ready to take up the mantle, starting with the team's lone senior and co-captain, Meghan Lahner (Toledo, Ohio/Ottawa Hills). She scored in several events last year and was one of the team's top players during the fall portion of the 2004-05 season.
Lahner leads a team that includes six juniors and one sophomore. The key juniors this spring are Ann Delaney (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Buffalo Grove) and co-captain Callie Riley (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park), both of whom were in the team's scoring mix during the fall season. Delaney and Riley are two of the team's three players who have broken 90 in a single collegiate round - the other being sophomore Erica Bodnar (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington). Delaney had the team's second-best scoring average in 2003-04, while Riley had the best scoring average in the fall 2004 season.
Six players participate in varsity tournaments, with the top four scores couinting toward the team total. That means the team's two newest players, juniors Emily Saylor (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana) and Elizabeth Vandeveer (Omaha, Neb./Foxcroft School (Va.)), will have plenty of opportunities to contribute in 2005. Juniors Kelly Prasser (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin) and Alex Pressler (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich./Grosse Pointe South), both of whom have varsity experience, are studying abroad and will return to the team in 2005-06.