Young team eyes Big Ten

Coming off of a second-place finish at the Big Ten championships last year, the women's golf team seeks to capitalize on a young roster and the leadership of 22-year head coach Sam Carmichael to another successful season.\n"I think we can have a very good year, we have a nice young squad returning that will hopefully gain some victories," Carmichael said. \nNatalie Tucker, who had nine top-10 finishes last year and Inga Snyder, who had seven top-20 finishes last season have graduated. \nBut returning is senior captain Tiffany Fisher. The only senior on this year's roster, Fisher had five top-25 finishes last year, while shooting for a 78.3 stroke average. \n"It's such an individual sport, but yet, what people don't understand is in college golf, you can't get anywhere by yourself. It's so hard to make regionals and nationals by yourself," Fisher said "So I think I've been trying to get the team to focus on more of a team atmosphere so when we go to a tournament, we'll show up and we'll be so close that we're intimidating."\nSophomore Danah Ford also figures to be an instrumental part of this year's squad. She won several tournaments over the summer after registering three top-25 finishes last season. \nSophomore Karen Dennison also offers the team depth, having performed successfully last season and during the summer. Dennison finished with a 78.5 stroke average and three top-25 finishes before tying for 10th at the Indiana Women's State Open and fifth at the IWGA State Amateur Championship during the summer.\nFellow sophomore Ambry Bishop further cements Carmichael's lineup. In her freshman season, Bishop played in eight tournaments, garnering top-25 finishes in two of them. \n"I approach each tournament with a positive attitude and the mind set of our team winning it. It is very important for our team to be behind each other and pulling for each other because that is when we have our success," Bishop said. "Part of coming together and playing well are talking to each other on the course and working hard at practice."\nAlso looking to play a potentially prominent role in the qualifying rounds are juniors Adrienne Graessle and Cara Stuckey, plus sophomores Shannon Carney and Mary Lidester.\nThe depth and the relative youth of the team bodes well not only for the coming season, but for the next several seasons.\n"There's a lot of us in the sophomore standing class and we're young. That's such an asset compared to a lot of other teams because we won't be losing two of our top six each year," Ford said.\nThe team will also have a new facility used strictly for golf located at the IU Foundation for practicing in for the coming years. \n"I don't know where there will be an advantage, because most of the other teams already have one," Carmichael said. "But, we can really work on our short game and make some improvements."\nThe new facility allows golfers to hit up to 170 yards and includes seven different greens, a new putting green and bunkers. \n"It's really great for the short game and it gives us a great opportunity to practice without any outside distractions," freshman walk-on Megan Mulhaupt said.\nThe team's first match comes in East Lansing, Michigan on September 15th and 16th at the Mary Fossum Invitational. Last year at the same event, after playing only 18 holes because of inclement weather, the Hoosiers finished in eighth place with a team score of 309.