Chippewas Tee It Up In Spring Opener On Monday

Monday, February 3

Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

8 a.m.

Central Michigan University

MAC Match Play

Photo by: Benjamin Suddendorf

2/2/2020 5:24:00 PM | Women's Golf

CMU looks to continue climb

By: Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – In the year-and-a-half since Jim Earle took over as the Central Michigan women's golf coach, the bar has been raised.

Last fall, the Chippewas won their first tournament since the program's resurrection in 2014-15, and they have built a solid nucleus of veterans and talented newcomers, each of whom possesses the game to go low at any given time.

The Chippewas open the spring schedule on Monday at the Mid-American Conference Match Play Challenge in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. And while the Chippewas had a good fall season, there are several question marks and variables as they begin the spring schedule that ends with the Mid-American Conference Championships and, hopefully, an NCAA Regional berth.

Team-wide consistency and how junior co-captain Jami Laude plays after returning from an injury top the storylines.

"I think they're hungry because we came out with the win early and there was a lot of excitement," said Earle, whose team finished among the top five in three of their five fall events, but finished eighth of 13 teams in their fall-closing Chippewa Invitational. "We didn't play our best down the stretch (in the fall).

"They've worked really hard. Every person found some time to get to a warm place and really put in some hard work. And they've been working really hard in the (Mount Pleasant Country Club) facilities. They want to get back to that, they want to win again. The challenge is there. We're going to go out there and give it everything we've got."

The Veterans
Laude, a junior, missed three fall tournaments with an injury. Her 78.44 scoring average is the best in program history.

"She's worked particularly hard just to be able to get back out on the golf course," Earle said. "Jami could have taken a medical redshirt, but she really wanted to help this team. I think she's hitting the ball great. Her swing looks better than ever. She needs to get out there and get some grass under her feet and have the ball fly for real. We're excited to have her back."

Junior Meghan Deardorff, who shares the team captaincy with Laude, has been on a steady course of improvement since arriving on campus 2 ½ years ago. She posted a 77.67 stroke average in the fall, which is second best on the team, and nine of her 12 fall scores were in the 70s.

"She just keeps going on an upward trajectory," Earle said. "Her golf swing is really good right now and it's grown leaps and bounds from when I first saw her and 100 percent of that is due to her work ethic and what she puts into practice. She's a wonderful example to all the new players this year and next year. Her footprint on the program will live far past her four years."

The Freshman
Claudia Salvador, Padgett Chitty and Zoe Vartyan comprise Earle's trio of top freshmen, each of whom provided plenty of highlights in the fall, helping to raise the long-term expectations in the program.

Salvador, a freshman from Madrid, Spain, made history in the fall when she won the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodon Fall Invitational, becoming the first CMU player to win a tournament. She posted a team-best 77.23 average in the fall.

Both Chitty and Vartyan posted a number of sub-80 scores in the fall.

The route to season-long success for the young players, and the entire roster, Earle said, begins with a mental approach.

"Believing in yourself and having that confidence and staying within that round of golf even if you don't have your best stuff," he said. "A lot of times that's hard to do when you're a young player. We're a really young team. We have three starting freshmen. Not a lot of teams have three starting freshmen. (The key) is for them to believe how good they are."

The Tournament
The Chippewas will open the MAC Match Play Challenge against Purdue Fort Wayne. CMU is seeded ninth and the Mastodons are seeded eighth in the 12-team event. The CMU-Purdue Fort Wayne winner will play top-seeded Florida Gulf Coast.

"We were 4-0 against (Purdue Fort Wayne) in the fall, but we did not crush them," Earle said. "They're right there, they're a good team, there's no doubt about it. We're going to have to play some really good golf to win those key matches and get past them and have a shot at the No. 1 seed."

Good Start
Earle said opening the spring schedule with a match play event, as opposed to a stroke play tournament, is a good foundation.

"It forces you to play with that one-hole-at-a-time mentality that you can translate into stroke play," Earle said of the benefit of competing in match play.