It does not matter how you start the season, but how you finish it. Sacramento State was voted by the 11 coaches of the teams in the Big Sky Conference to finish third this season in conference behind Northern Arizona and Portland State. 

Women’s golf in the Big Sky Conference is always competitive. Sac State women’s golf is not going to let the hype of preseason rankings distract them from the ultimate goal later in April, the conference tournament.

“The preseason rankings don’t mean anything to me,” women’s head coach David Sutherland said.

Last season, the Hornets were picked to win the conference but lost by two shots to the Northern Colorado Bears on the last day of the conference invitational.

The Hornets know when it comes to the conference invitational, at the end of the season, any team can win.

“There are many talented Division I teams in the Big Sky conference that are capable of winning in conference this year,” Sutherland said.

The Hornets are focusing on making sure they do everything they can in order to compete in every invitational this season.

“We, as a team, need to build our confidence up and play well throughout the season,” said junior Tiffany Nichols. “We have to make sure we do what we need to do in order to have a successful spring season.”

Sutherland is confident the Hornets will win a few tournaments this season if the team plays well together.

“We just have to focus on individual successes this year with all five girls playing well together,” Sutherland said.

Sac State finished its first tournament of the spring season, the Folino Women’s Invitational in the City of Industry, finishing in sixth place overall out of 12 teams.

Two of the five Sac State golfers finished in the top ten in the Folino Women’s Invitational: sophomore Sagee Palavivatana in fifth place and Nichols in ninth place.

Junior Lisa Persson didn’t play well in the last tournament shooting an uncharacteristic 30-over-par 83-79-81, 243. Persson shot a 10 over par in the last round of the invitational.

“I am going to forget about the last invitational tournament and move on to the next tournament,” Persson said.

The Hornets are making sure they are going to do the little things in order to continue the team’s success this season heading up to the conference tournament.

“I just need to stay focused during the practice rounds and make sure I keep making shots,” Nichols said.

Although the conference tournament is a few months away, Nichols would like to see Sac State win the conference tournament.

“I think it would be great to win conference this year,” Nichols said. “We need all five girls to play well.”

Sac State looks to continue to build up throughout the season and ride the momentum into the conference tournament April 21-23.

 

Clifton can be reached on Twitter at @jonesSHsports