This year, the Seton Hall women's golf program is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. This is the first of a three part series celebrating the history of one of Seton Hall's most-successful programs. The writer, Justin Sousa, is the current sports editor of The Setonian, and a contributor to SHUpirates.com.
By Justin Sousa
 TEN years ago, Sara Doell woke up to a text message from a colleague about a potential head coaching job for a new women's golf program. She remembered the message distinctly because it said the position was open at "Seaton Hall," which, even at the time of writing, was a nonexistent college, but Doell knew it was referring to the very real Seton Hall. After a few years of being an assistant coach at her alma mater of Penn State, Doell felt like this was the next challenge she needed to take on in her coaching career.
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She was offered the job immediately after her interview, and the process of getting this program off the ground never slowed down after that. Doell officially started working as the team's head coach in May 2010 and spent most of her time working with the men's head coach, Clay White, to recruit her inaugural team while she also set up a schedule for the 2010-11 season. Even without a permanent office space for her first few weeks on the job, Doell wasted no time in outlining the identity she wanted for her team and the program moving forward.
"I wanted to lay the groundwork from the beginning that we were going to do things the right way," Doell said. "We were going to be a model team that followed the rules, worked hard and showed up to be our best selves every single day. I had a vision of just being proud of the way the program would be seen in the eyes of the athletics department."Â
Hannah Basalone, Seton Hall's
first All-BIG EAST performer
Helping establish the foundations for this model team were five freshmen, Stacie Ballou, Hannah Basalone, Christina Cantu, Samantha Massei and Haley Van Es, and two upperclassmen, Nicole Longobardo and Erica Fitzpatrick. Doell was hard on this group to start, setting the level of performance and commitment she expected from her players early on. It was a tough first year for the team with most of them trying to find their groove at the collegiate level in competitive golf and adapting to the quirks of the program being so new.
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Basalone remembered meeting her teammates for the first time when she moved into her dorm at Seton Hall, and the group seemed to click immediately. They were excited to be a part of the program's inaugural season, but Basalone also remembers how intimidating and discouraging the first year of results were for many of them. She distinctly remembered how difficult the BIG EAST Tournament was that year and the taste the team got for what it's like to compete against some of the best golfers and golf programs in the country.
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Doell understood this was likely to be the case during the first year, so she focused on building the familial culture and atmosphere she wanted within the team. She knew she would have her opportunity to recruit new players that could improve the squad in years to come, but the timeframe to set the standard for the team atmosphere was that first year. Basalone understood that, and she worked with her teammates to pass that same standard down onto future classes.
"I felt a decent amount of pressure to be a leader once we weren't freshman," Basalone said. "We felt like we wanted to guide the people who were coming after us. We made sure that the team was getting better and functioned as a team that got along."
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Basalone's leadership also showed on the green with her winning the program's first-ever individual title at the Lehigh Invitational. For Basalone, it was her favorite career moment at Seton Hall and set the example for the rest of the team that these accomplishments were in touching distance for them. Alongside the team's trio of freshman – Erin McClure, Ali Kruse and McKenzie Cutter – Basalone also helped guide the team to their first-ever team win with an individual third place finish at the Siena Invitational.
Erin McClure, Ali Kruse and
McKenzie Cutter
That trio of freshmen not only marked the first recruitment class completely brought in by Doell, but it also ignited the shift in progress the team had on the green. They not only brought more talent to the table, but they also brought winning mentalities having come from strong programs at their respective high schools. For Kruse specifically, the adjustment to playing in a program so brand new and unaccustomed to winning was new to her having won nearly every tournament her high school back in Kansas competed in.
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"Obviously, college is a different caliber than high school," Kruse said. "But I stepped in with a viewpoint that I wanted to play, and I was going to do what I needed to make sure I was competing. Whether that was putting in extra hours in our golf room or over the summer, I did what I needed to do."
Kruse finished her first year with BIG EAST Academic All-Star honors and tied for 24th place with McClure in their first appearances at the BIG EAST Tournament. Basalone led the team as their best individual finisher at the tournament with an 11th place finish that season. As improvements showed and good results became more of a normalcy at within the program, the team felt even stronger heading into the program's third year.
The additions of freshmen Megan Tenhundfeld and Karlie Zabrosky were crucial to the team's success as they both participated in nine and seven tournaments, respectively, that season, Tenhundfeld had a strong freshmen year, recording her first-career top-5 finish at the St. John's Intercollegiate and played a role in the team that won the Rutgers Invitational that year. Kruse also added the program's second-ever individual title to their list of accomplishments that season after winning the St. John's Intercollegiate.
"They were just in it, and we started playing really great golf during our second and third years," Doell said. "At one point, I remember we were in the lead pairing at BIG EAST. Then we finished sixth, but I think they just got a little taste for what it's like to play with the best players."
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That third year was the closest the team had ever gotten to achieving their goal of winning the BIG EAST Tournament. Despite the program still being in its infancy compared to other schools, Doell and the team knew they had something special building up to their next few years of success.
 TEN YEARS OF EXCELLENCE - Part II - Back-to-Back-to-Back
