The New Haven women’s golf team started their inaugural season just last year and finished last out of seven teams in the conference championship. Despite the novelty of the program and the result of the previous season, the team was able to secure their first Northeast-10 Conference Championship title this fall.
The Chargers finished six strokes ahead of the favored Franklin Pierce Ravens, who won the past four titles prior to this season. Graduate transfer Wynter Flores led the way for the Chargers individually, tied for first place after the first 18 holes and finished tied for second place with Assumption’s Jenny Walsh.
Following Flores was freshman Isabella Thomas who was just two strokes behind Flores and tied for fourth place overall. Junior Erin Earl was next in line for the Chargers, earning eighth place, followed by freshman Sofia Cova who finished tenth overall. Cova earned the NE-10 Rookie of the Week award earlier in the season after her performance in the Hartford Hawk Invitational.
“Being able to watch their celebration kind of hit me as to why you coach,” said head coach Matt Ward. Ward said he believed in the team and the talent of each of his players.
“When we got to conference, the girls were ready,” he said. “Coaching, for me, has never really been about me. It’s about them.”
Ward said the golfers are a tight-knit group.
“I think the strength of the team is really the relationships they have with each other,” he said. “The team gets along really well and I think that helps a lot. They are not afraid to push each other, they’re not afraid to call each other out when things need to get better. There’s a genuine concern from one player to the next.”
Going into next season, Ward said one area that needs improvement is depth. With just nine players on the roster, Coach Ward wants to add to this group going forward.
Ward said, “We’ve got some pretty talented players, but we need to add to that for sure. You can never have enough good players.” He said that in future seasons he wants to carry a roster of 11 or 12 members.
“There’s a Navy Seal philosophy that I love, it’s that you never rise to the occasion, what you do is you fall back to your level of training,” said Ward. “So, if we train at a level that’s consistently high and it’s our very best, then everything we do… that’s the level we fall back to.” Ward also said that he wants his players to be their best on and off the course.
The women’s golf team wrapped up their fall season after conference play with another tournament victory at the Assumption Invitational. The team will go into postseason play this coming spring. For more information, visit NewHavenChargers.com.