Adam Pohll, the coach for both the men’s and women’s Sacramento State golf teams, might be having a feeling of deja vu this weekend.

Pohll will travel to Windsor, Colo., with the men’s team to compete in the Independent Golf Championships Friday through Sunday.

The men have been riding a season to remember, winning their first meet in eight years and shooting their lowest 54-hole, three-day tournament in 10 years.

“It gives us a new sense of confidence,” sophomore Cody Miller said. “We (now) know we can win and do well.”

Sophomore Jeremy Harris agreed with Miller, saying the team has gained more confidence throughout the season’s accomplishments.

“We have come together as a team and have been playing well,” he said.

The Sac State men’s team is looking to repeat what the women did last week when it traveled to Goodyear, Ariz., for the Big Sky Conference Championships.

The women’s team posted an 884, the lowest since 2004, which was good enough for first place to win the Big Sky Championships.

Pohll hopes the women’s victory will give the men the motivation to return to Sac with top honors.

“It’s like the guys saw what the girls did and don’t want (them) to one up them,” Pohll said.

Both the men’s and women’s programs won their first tournament of the season, but what Pohll said was noticeable was that the women won the first tournament at the Bobcat Desert Classic in Goodyear on March 14, then the men’s team followed with its first first-place finish of the season at the Diablo Grande Intercollegiate in Patterson on March 20.

“We need to put that on the back burner, and hopefully we can repeat again,” Sophomore Scott DeBorba said of the back-to-back victories.

The men beat out 10 other teams, shooting 885. DeBorba took home top honors, shooting 216, followed by freshman Grant Norton, who shot a 218.

Another record-setting moment was when the men’s team posted an 871 at the OGIO Pacific Coast Intercollegiate in Solvang on April 2-3, which is the fourth-best score in school history, and the lowest in the last 10 years.

Pohll said the best thing to do before heading into the championships is continue to practice and be consistent.

“We will be doing the same old stuff and continue to play a lot in the short game, which is chipping and putting,” he said. “We just need to continue to play a lot and concentrate on the short game.”

Chipping is when the golfer hits the ball anywhere after driving off the tee and before making it onto the green, which is where the final strokes will be taken.

Putting is when the ball reaches the green and the golfer takes shorter, softer strokes to drop the ball into the hole.

Sac State will take on teams that are not set conferences in the International Golf Championships hosted by Northern Colorado in Windsor at the Pelican Lakes Country Club beginning on Friday.

Wally Goodwin, director of golf and coach of the defending champions Northern Colorado, Francis Marion said Idaho State, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado Sac State, South Dakota State, Utah Valley State, Weber State will make up the eight teams for the three-day tournament.

Pohll said Sac State’s biggest competition will be Northern Colorado since it will have the advantage of golfing in its own course and Weber State, which is ranked higher than Sac State.

The Sac State men’s team was in the Big Sky Conference along with the women but, according to conference rules there must be six teams minimum in the conference. After Portland State left the Big Sky four years ago, the conference dropped the men’s program.

Pohll said his team has a great chance to bring home a victory since the team has been posting milestones throughout the season.

“I think the chances are great. We won our first tournament in eight years and (recorded) the best three-round tournament total in 10 years,” he said.

Along with the record-breaking season, the Hornets’ two freshmen, Kyle Candlish and Grant Norton, are ranked as the 18th best freshman class in Division I.

“That’s a huge thing,” Pohll said.

“I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like,” Norton said when he joined the Hornets. “Watching college golf, you see juniors and seniors (playing) and I heard I would be starting – it was different.”

Not only does the team have two solid freshman golfers, but DeBorba has been showing Pohll what he’s made of during practice.

“He’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Pohll said. “This week in practice he shot a 63, which is nine under par. “I expect big things out of him.”

DeBorba shot the 63 at the Wildhawk Golf Course, which was a set par of 72. “That has built my confidence a lot,” DeBorba said.

Without knowing the entire field that the Hornets might be going up against in Colorado, Candlish knows Sac State has a shot.

“I don’t know all the teams that are going to be there, but I know four teams, and I know we are capable of beating them,” he said.

The men know what the women did last week and aren’t about to let the women have the best season and hold losing against them.

“It’s definitely like that – that if the girls can do it, we can do it,” Norton said.

Candlish said he doesn’t feel any pressure since the women won.

“They have had a really good season and so have the men,” he said. “It would be a disappointment (if we lost) and (we would) hear it from the girls over the summer.”

“We are really happy for them, but we’re going to do our best regardless of what the women win,” Miller said.

Both Norton and Candlish said the men and women are very close.

We work out together and hang out around school together,” Candlish said.

“We like seeing them do well and they like seeing us do well,” Harris said.

Karyn Gilbert can be reached at [email protected]