The women’s golf team is entering its third year of being a collegiate sport at Le Moyne under the leadership of coach Steve Serling. Serling was hired at the beginning of last year to run the program, and has begun shaping the program into a recognizable team in the area. The team has grown astoundingly over the last year, with more girls coming from other areas of the state.

“I am optimistic for this season,” Serling said. “We have a couple new players from campus and a new recruit from the Rochester area. We are a growing program and are starting to see some progress.”

In discussing his goals for the team this season Serling said, “We want to start improving scoring and becoming more consistent, and it has taken a long time for us to do so. The golf program started in fall ’09 and we only had one event at Cortland, then started to put together a full spring schedule. Before the players mostly came from campus because many did not know that we had a team. There is now more recruiting and talking to coaches.”

In the off-season, it is mainly up to each individual what they work on. A great emphasis is placed upon individual work-outs and practice.

“A lot is up to the ladies what they do in the summer. Some came for instructions, others practiced on their own,” Serling said. “As players, we did not play a lot locally before college, therefore there is more enthusiasm toward the sport now. I gave them drills to work on and other things individually at the end of the spring, and we went over them together.”

The team has one new freshman recruit this year, Jocelyn Bender from Webster, N.Y., who has become the third highest scorer for the team.

“She is a good player, and is becoming a very consistent performer for us,” Serling said of Bender.

There is also a transfer student who joined the team, Shea Turney from Jamesville, N.Y. Turney had gone to school in Florida for the past year, but transferred to Le Moyne to become the fourth-highest scorer for the ladies team. Key returning players are highest scorer Kathleen Reidy, Laura Nicolais, and Emma Plucinik.

“We have a young team,” Serling reflected. “There was a senior last year, and many have just recently joined the team last spring.”

Le Moyne has been the only college in the Northeast-10 division with a Women’s Golf program until just recently with Merrimack starting a program this year. Since there is no regional play to compete in, the women cannot compete in the NCAA championships. The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference will be the biggest tournament for the team this fall, as it is the main big tournament to compete in.

In the William Smith Invitational this past weekend, Kathleen Reidy led the Dolphins in scoring, finishing in second place out of twenty-five other golfers. As a team, Le Moyne placed second, missing first place by just one stroke. The hard work put in by the ladies is paying off, as the ‘Phins aim for great success this season.