Chippewas Tee It Off On Monday

Monday, September 16

Rochester, Mich.

Central Michigan University

Golden Grizzlies Invitational

9/13/2019 5:45:00 PM | Women's Golf

Strong potential in cast of veteran returnees, slew of newcomers

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – The Central Michigan golf team tees off in Year 2 of the Jim Earle era on Monday when it partakes in the Oakland Golden Grizzly Invitational in Rochester.

The Chippewas return two veteran mainstays in juniors Jami Laude, the captain, and Meghan Deardorff, the co-captain, as they attempt to build on the success they had in 2018-19, particularly in the fall portion of that season when they posted four top-five team finishes in five events.

Tops among those finishes was a third at the Mid-American Conference preview in October.

"That was big for us," Earle said. "For them to taste the success we had in the fall, I think it made, at least for the returners, very hungry to continue that success.

"It shows the returners that we can play with the very best teams in the MAC and it also gets the freshmen excited coming in that they know we can go low and they're eager, ready to help and to put in the hard work that it takes to compete in this conference."

Top Returnees
Laude led the Chippewas with a 78.54 scoring average last year, while Deardorff averaged 81.39 and is coming off a solid summer which included a strong showing in the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) Women's Amateur.

The Newcomers
Earle's five-member incoming freshman class includes a pair of international players, Claudia Salvador of Spain and Zoe Vartyan of Austria. Both sport outstanding junior resumés.

"A lot of the top (college) teams have an international contingent within their team and I've been able to recruit successfully internationally," Earle said. "It was a priority for me when I came into the program."

The other three freshmen are Michigan natives Danielle Staskowski and Ashley Liles, both of whom hail from Clarkston, and Padgett Chitty, who calls Valdosta, Ga. home. That trio also boasts strong junior and high school backgrounds.

"I like their creativity around the greens and they can go low, and we have in qualifying, so we're excited to see what they can do in a tournament," Earle said.

Competition
The influx of talented newcomers has sparked a strong competition for the five starting spots in the lineup.

"Qualifying, we've had some low scores, which is good, I think it's good to fight for spots," Deardorff said. "it's going to make everybody better on the whole. We're going to compete a lot better out there having multiple people who can go low. That is going to make us a real threat."

Season opener
The six-team Golden Grizzly Invitational is a 36-hole event at Oakland's Katke-Cousins Golf Course, which will play to par 72 over 5,932 yards. Joining the Chippewas and host Grizzlies in the event are Detroit Mercy, Green Bay, Niagara and IUPU Fort Wayne.

The tournament begins with 18 holes on Monday and concludes with 18 on Tuesday.

Last year, when the field comprised 12 teams, the Chippewas finished third, kickstarting their outstanding fall campaign.

Earle said Laude and Deardorff will be joined in the lineup by Chitty, Vartyan and Salvador. Liles and junior Rachel Leucuta, another returnee who played in several tournaments last year, will play in the tournament as individuals.

Earle said he is anxious to see how his youngsters perform under tournament pressure.

"The entire team is both excited and they're nervous, but that's only natural," he said. "There's only way to handle that and that's to tee it up and go get it.

"We're a whole new look this year. We're deeper, we've got a lot of talent. We're excited to see what we can do."