Colleen Stephens
Second-year head coach Jeff Roope and the Wittenberg women's golf team looks to continue making big strides toward becoming one of the top programs in the Great Lakes Region in the 2009 spring season. In its five-year modern history as a varsity program, Wittenberg has slowly ascended to new heights, setting program firsts and bests over the last two years.
Included among the Tiger bests was a first-place team finish at the Auld Crafter's Kisor Classic at Ohio Dominican in October 2008. It marked the second time in the modern era that a Tiger women's golf team won an invitational and the first time ever that the program claimed the individual medalist honor. Senior Jennifer Petro (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart) was that tournament victor, and she hopes to lead the young squad into national-qualifying contention. The three-time team MVP returns to cap off the most prolific career in the program's brief history. A model of consistency, Petro continued to improve her strokes per round average to 84.4 during the 2008 fall season, which is two shots better than her 2007-08 season performance.
Surrounding Petro this spring a fellow senior and co-captain Colleen Stephens (Lexington, Ky./Dunbar), and a pair of juniors Krissy Herman (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills) and Kaci McClure (Dublin, Ohio/Scioto). Herman turned in a 94.2 average through a strong fall season, while McClure's fall campaign included a scoring average of 97.3, a slight improvement over her 2007-08 year-long performance.
They are joined by a precocious group of first-year students who made a strong impression during the fall portion of the 2008-09 schedule. Freshman Anne Busam (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline) has already proven to be a force on the collegiate links, accruing a team-best 83.7 mark in her first seven rounds wearing the Red & White. Fellow first-years Carrie Frey (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas), Nicole Momsen (Sylvania, Ohio/ St. Ursula) and Heather Hendrickson (Fort Wayne, Ind./Bishop Luers) took advantage of their opportunities in the fall and figure prominently in the team's spring plans as well.
Newfound depth for the Tigers figures to help Wittenberg close in on a NCAA Division III postseason appearance, an accomplishment that would be a first for the program. The Tigers kick off their spring campaign with a trip to Jacksonville, Fla. for the North-South Collegiate Golf Tournament hosted by Butler University on March 9-10.