Maryland Women's Golf Prepares For Spring Season
2/21/2003 7:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Feb. 21, 2003
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Now in its fourth season, the Maryland women's golf team can finally boast its first full four-year senior class. Erin Clasper (North Potomac, Md.), Carter Crowther (Kilmarnock, Va.) and Jennifer Gibson (Havertown, Pa.) have been with the team since the beginning and will lead a veteran team in 2002-03, one that also consists of three juniors and one sophomore.
"There's not really one player who is clearly head and shoulders above the rest," said head coach Jason Rodenhaver, who has also been with the team since its inception in 1999 and built the program from scratch. However, he added that Clasper is team captain for the second year in a row, and he expects her to lead the team on and off the course. "I don't know where I'd be without her," he said.
Clasper competed in all four fall tournaments in 2002, and averaged a team-best 77.91 strokes per round. She cracked the top 25 at three of the tournaments, including a 15th-place finish to lead the Terps to ninth at the Lady Pirate Fall Intercollegiate in Greenville, N.C.
Junior Marie Harper (West Point, Va.) joined Clasper as the only other golfer to compete in all four fall tournaments. Her best performance came in the final tournament of the season, the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, S.C., where she tied for 15th place at seven over par for the tournament. There she also tied her career best with two rounds of 74.
After sitting out the season-opening Lady Kat Invitational in Lexington, Ky., Crowther competed in the final three tournaments, ending the season strong with a 14th-place finish at the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate to lead the Terps. Crowther carded a par 72 in the third round, the team's only round of par in the fall, to finish six over par for the tournament.
Rodenhaver expects his five-person lineup to change throughout the year. "The fall was about finding a lineup that works," he said. "We have the luxury that we're deep enough and have enough talent that if some girls aren't playing well, we can make some changes."
After placing ninth, sixth and ninth at the first three tournaments of the fall, the Terps ended the season on a high note, finishing fourth at the Edwin Watts/Palmetto Intercollegiate, the team's highest finish of the season. The Terps shot a collective 904, including a third-round 298, the first time the team has broken 300 for a round in the brief history of the program.
"We finished on a high note. Edwin Watts gave the team confidence and momentum going into the spring, and it puts us in position to do great things and hopefully get an NCAA [tournament] bid. That's always our goal," Rodenhaver said.
The Atlantic Coast Conference boasts three of the nation's top 30 teams. Reigning ACC and NCAA champion Duke holds the No. 5 spot, while North Carolina ranks 17th and Wake Forest ranks 26th. Rodenhaver won't make any predictions on where the Terps will finish in the conference. "We just want to improve on last year and get better every day, every tournament," he said.
Maryland last year competed in four of this spring's five tournaments, including the Hatter Spring Fling in Daytona Beach, Fla., and the Lady Dukes Invitational in Harrisonburg, Va. The Terps placed fifth at both events. This spring season begins Feb. 28 at the Edwin Watts/Carolinas Collegiate Classic in Pinehurst, N.C., and concludes April 18-20 with the ACC Championship in Clemmons, N.C.
