Women's Golf Releases Fall Schedule
6/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Head Coach Sara Doell unveiled the Seton Hall women's golf team's 2012 fall schedule on Wednesday. The Pirates will compete in five tournaments beginning with the Lady Bison Fall Classic on Sept. 8-9.
"I believe that we have put together a very strong schedule for the fall season," Doell said. "We are playing in four of the same events that we competed in last fall and added the St. John's Invitational to round out the season."
Seton Hall will open play with the Lady Bison Fall Classic on Sept 8-9 in Lewisburg, Pa. It is the third straight year that the Pirates have opened the fall at Bucknell. In their first tournament ever in 2010, Seton Hall placed 10th of 18 teams. Last fall, the Pirates placed third in the 15-team field. Hannah Basalone (Brea, Calif.) tied for seventh place overall with a 15-over-par, 225.
"The Bucknell invitational has always been one of my favorite events back to when I competed there as a Student-Athlete," Doell said. "It is a challenging, yet fair golf course and has a large field with some great teams. This is the perfect venue to start our fall season off on the right foot."
A week and a half later, Seton Hall will participate in the St. John's Intercollegiate for the first time in program history. Hosted by the Red Storm, the field will compete on Eisenhower Park White Course in East Meadow, N.Y.
"This is the first year of the St. Johns Intercollegiate and it looks to be a strong field already," Doell said. "When Princeton dropped their fall event, we filled our schedule with this one and the advantage is two-fold. It gives us the chance to support one of our BIG EAST competitors in the first year of an event and we'll be able to enter two teams into the field, allowing all 10 players on our roster to compete."
On Sunday, September 21, Seton Hall will begin play at the Yale Women's Intercollegiate. It is the third straight year playing in New Haven. In 2010, the Pirates placed 13th of 14 teams, but last year improved dramatically to finish eighth of 16 competitors. Basalone's second round 72 paced her to a 14th place tie to lead Seton Hall.
"The format of the Yale Intercollegiate has changed to a three-day event, instead of a two-day event," Doell said. "We have competed at this tournament in both of our first two years and I know that the team likes this golf course. I believe that we can have a solid showing this year"
Two weeks later, the Pirates will make the short trip down the New Jersey Turnpike to Piscataway for the Rutgers Women's Invitational. It is another course that Seton Hall is familiar with, playing the tournament for the third straight year. In 2010, the Pirates finished a disappointing 19th of 20 teams, but rebounded well last fall, finishing fourth among a field of 19. Again, Basalone led the Pirates' charge, shooting a 9-over-par, 153, to tie for fourth overall, her best individual finish at the time.
"We look to make a strong move at the Rutgers Invitational this year as we finished 4th last year and I know that we can improve on that finish," Doell said. "The Par 5's at Rutgers are very scoreable, and with the length that we have on this squad, we can use it to our advantage."
For the second straight year, Seton Hall will wrap-up fall play with the Lehigh University Invitational, October 20-21. Last year, Basalone became the first Seton Hall women's golfer to earn an individual tournament title with a 3-over-par, 147, in Bethlehem. As a team, Seton Hall earned its highest finish, placing second in the eight-team fall finale.
"Lehigh will be our last tournament of the fall and we will certainly use the success from last year's second place finish as a building block for this year," Doell said. "The field looks to be a little tougher than 2011, as Yale, Rutgers and Princeton have all joined the field."
