This season was a record-setting one for the Sacramento State women’s golf team, five times over. Coach Adam Pohll hopes this season was a sign of the future.

It began in mid-September with the team finishing second in the La Quinta Mountain Shootout. The women shot their sixth best as a team in school history at 306. One month later, the team would set new record at 293 at the Lady Aztec Fall Classic.

In 2005, the Hornets finished a distant last at the Big Sky Conference Women’s Golf Championships in Goodyear, Ariz. Fast forward one year later, riding on a high from rewriting the record books at Sac State, the team finished just one shot behind second place and host Northern Arizona. With the help of sophomore Heather LeMaster’s two under in the third round, tying the tournament’s lowest round, and junior Margaux Sheehan’s 75 in the second round the team landed second all time in school history shooting 295 for the tournament.

“We’re all pretty proud of ourselves. We all know we came a long way this season,” Sheehan said. “I definitely see us getting at least one win next season and the Big Sky Championship.” Sheehan bested her 2005 single round average of 80.5 by nearly three strokes at 77.7 this season. The junior is now Sac State’s all time leader in single season average and tied for individual low round. “It is such a different feeling now than before,” Sheehan said. “Now we’re always out to win.”

In a sport where the lower the score the better, the women set a top ten record for lowest tournament scores in all but two tournaments this season. Pohll happily admitted this is the best season the women have had in Division I history.

“The biggest thing is it has changed everybody’s expectations,” Pohll said. “Our goal now is to make it to regionals and win the conference.”

Junior Chad Wood would like to see some of the success of the women’s team, which will host the 2008 NCAA West Regionals, rub off onto the men’s team, which struggled through this season.

“The women had a great season, I think they surprised a lot of people,” Wood said. “I think (the women) will be looking forward to coming out of the gates hot for next season.”

Wood hopes the men’s team will make improvements to have similar success next year. Wood set a new record for single round low, shooting 62 at the Wolf Pack Invitational.

Both Hornet golf teams rely on each other for support on and off the course. Sheehan and sophomore Kim Coppin flew out to Colorado this past weekend to watch the men’s team compete in their final tournament this season. They finished last.

In the next few seasons, Pohll hopes to develop programs that will earn the respect of larger West Coast programs.

“This season was a huge leap for us. Just to bring college golf to Sacramento is exciting,” Pohll said.

Brad Alexander can be reached at [email protected]