For a team that despises the word “expectations,” the No. 10 ASU women’s golf team seems to have drawn a chance to do something extraordinary.
Drawing a favorable group for the NCAA East Region was only the first bit of good luck bestowed on the fourth-seeded Sun Devils. The real gift came with the announcement that the team will be playing in Daytona Beach, Fla., and will only have one Pac-10 team joining them.
With the knowledge of having a good chance at finishing high, the ASU coaches are really dialing back expectations to decrease some of the pressure on the team.
“We have a young team, but they have worked very hard to be prepared,” ASU assistant coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. “We set goals and we work hard to achieve them. Expectations is a word that creates pressure, and this isn’t about pressure.”
Recently, ASU has been going in the wrong direction, finishing out of the top 5 in its last three tournaments, which all consisted of at least six conference foes. So a change of scenery and opponents is a welcome sign.
“They are so excited to be going to Florida,” ASU coach Melissa Luellen said. “Everything feels really good about it. When I saw the players react like that, it didn’t matter who was there, because they know that they can play well enough to do great.”
Playing in Florida will bring back some memories for at least one of the ASU players as Giulia Molinaro finished her last two years of high school there. Molinaro has improved immensely this year, earning first team Pac-10 honors after recording her first career win in Hawaii this year.
“I am happy that I didn’t set a specific goal for myself, just things have been coming along,” Molinaro said. “I really like Florida so I am very happy to be playing in Daytona, that was the place I really wanted to go.”
Molinaro led the team in its only trip to the Southeast this season, finishing tied for fifth at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate in New Orleans, La., on March 1. The team finished in a respectable seventh place in the prestigious tournament which included many of the top teams in the country.
ASU will again face stiff competition as there are nine teams ranked in the top 25 in their regional.
The field is a mixture of teams getting hot and teams on the decline. The regional has the highest amount of conference winners led by SEC champion No. 13 Auburn, Big Ten Champion No. 18 Michigan State and ACC Champion No. 15 North Carolina. However, all the teams ahead of ASU, No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Purdue and No. 5 California failed to win their conference, with Purdue losing a playoff to MSU.
No. 6 ASU junior Carlota Ciganda is the top-ranked individual in the region.
The team has relied heavily on three freshmen who have played in every event so far this year after coming to ASU in January. Justine Lee has led the trio in scoring but Laura Blanco and Daniela Ordonez aren’t far behind, as both are within one stroke of Lee’s 75.78 scoring average.
The East Regional begins on May 5 at the LPGA International Golf Course and the top-eight teams from the region will advance to the NCAA Championships, which begin on May 18.
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
