Aug. 23, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Head women's golf coach Denise St. Pierre enters her 20th season at the helm, while Emily Ransone (Hilliard, Ohio) is set to play her junior season.
Head Coach Denise St. Pierre
Q: Are you excited for the season to get started officially?
A: We're very, very excited about this year. We just had our opening meeting yesterday and today is our official first day of practice. So, we've got a lot of great things on the schedule. We have a lot of new players in our lineup so there's a lot to be excited about. We have this big thing looming at us at the end of the season, which is hosting the NCAA East Regional for the first time. There's certainly a lot to do before that, but a lot to look forward to.
Q: Is there more pressure on the team because of hosting the regional action?
A: There may be some underlying things there. Certainly we're striving for that every year. It's not like because it happens to be here that this is the year we're striving for it. It's something that we've been to before and have come up short the last few years. We feel like we're getting to that point where we're certainly a team that's capable of getting to that next level of getting to the regional. I think that if we just take it one step at a time, one tournament at a time, we'll be just fine.
Q: Thoughts of how Hanule Seo played out in Bandon, Ore.?
A: That's on my bucket list. That's a place I wanted to go. When Sky (Hanule Seo) was going there and qualified I was so excited for her and wished I could have gone out to follow. We've seen the growth of some of the players that have been in the lineup the past couple years. I have Emily (Ransone) here right now who has been one of our leaders on the team and then our starting lineup. Sky is returning, Ellen Ceresko and Christina Vosters. Rounding those things out, we still have some talent on the front end of things that's yet to be seen in our freshmen. We have Elyse Archambault, who's from Quebec, one of the top players in Canada. We have Katlyn Elliott from Ontario who is also one of the top players from Canada. I felt like if I brought them south to play golf, they'd feel like this is warm. We have one of Emily's (Ransone) cohorts who she's familiar with who's from Cincinnati, Ohio, is Erin Michel. So, those three freshmen we certainly expect to see some good things out of and really help us out at some of those depth positions that I think have just fell a little short. I think those are the things that could make a difference for us this year. When you're playing five players in our starting lineup and counting four scores out of five. What I've seen over the years in collegiate golf is it used to be if your top two players were getting it done you had some chance. Now, the level of play in women's golf has just soured, which is great to see. It means that you need some depth. We have certainly got some people in place now that can provide us with the depth that we're looking for to be as competitive as we want to be.
Q: What does hosting the NCAA East Regional show about the program and the facilities?
A: I will say that I've been here a few years and one of things that has been my goal is to be a host of the NCAA Regional and we've always fallen short of getting the bid because of our facilities. When the committee comes in to look at different prospects for hosting, they check out not only your golf course but they check out your practice areas and what's available for players if you do have them coming in. They check out places for the media and certainly for officials that are going to be running the tournament and we've kind of fallen a little short of that over the years. I really think that just with the Tombros Varsity Clubhouse coming on board with some of our practice areas and really upgrading and getting better that that has definitely helped us secure this bid this year for the first time. I'm excited about it. I hope that it maybe it brings even something bigger down the road, which is the final championship. This is a great start for us, putting us on the map nationally and seeing some of the best teams in the country come to our Blue Course to compete.
Q: How big of an impact will first-year assistant coach Abby Pearson have on the team?
A: I am very excited about having Abby Pearson with us. She has really a wealth of different experiences that she's going to bring to the team. One of the things that is great about Abby is that she has competed at a pretty high level, not just collegiately but professionally. She has won (three) professional tournaments on the Future's Tour. She still has a great game and I think that her experience playing at that level will help the players immensely. She also brings a lot of experience with running events. She ran the Future's Duramed Tour. I'm looking forward to having her help me with some these tournaments that we were just talking about that we are hosting here. It's great to have Abby along. She's excited about this opportunity. It's only been two days into her experience here but it's going to be a great journey.
Junior Emily Ransone
Q: How much are you looking forward to this season's possibilities?
A: I would definitely say that since we found out what freshmen were coming in and that we're hosting regionals. I'd say we've all been pretty excited for this year. Like Coach said, we're pretty deep this year with talent. Our starting five is going to be pretty competitive so I think we're all looking forward to that. As for regionals being in the back of our mind, I think that's just going to make us practice harder every day, especially because all of us absolutely love the Blue Course. I think it could be a really, really exciting year for us. I think the entire team, including the freshmen are very excited, so it's going to be good.
Q: What does hosting the NCAA East Regional show about the program and the facilities?
A: I just wanted to thank the Tombros family again for their donation. Not only is that clubhouse absolutely incredible, but also it has made our team so much more cohesive and it has really added a different aspect to our team that we didn't have my freshman year. I definitely think we have a lot to be thankful for.